Snake Singer
by Desirae Joy Wilson
Summary: [COMPLETE] Rebel groups of Avian and Serpente will not allow the peace that Zane and Danica want to continue. War breaks out and Zane and Danica have to go into hiding.
1. Chapter 1

Title: Snake Singer

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

With a slight puff of my cheeks and an exhale of breath the small candle that burned dimly in the window blew out. The room went dark, I wasn't afraid though, I could hear the even breathing from the bed across the room, and though it was dark I made my way there perfectly. Stepping where I needed to and swerving my body to accommodate the placing of the furniture.

I stood beside the corner of the bed, and watched as the moonlight sown down on my husband Zane Cobriana, king and leader of the serpiente people. I lowered my hand gently from my side and stroked his forehead with my fingers. His slick black hair curling underneath my touch as I brushed it away from his closed eyes. How strange it must have seemed to see us together, Zane, a Cobriana, and myself a Shardae. For centuries our families had been mortal enemies, but now the man that I was taught was my enemy was now my husband, and I could not deny that I loved him greatly.

With a smile on my face I stepped into bed, lifting the covers slightly so I would not disturb Zane. The busyness of the day had been exhausted for him, and I knew the stress that he was feeling weighed heavily on him. Ever sense we decided to move to Haente, the new capital city of the now joined nations of avian and serpiente, a greater unrest as pressed our people. There are uprisings everywhere, and rebellions that seem destined to carry on forever.

As I laid my head upon the pillow I stroked my hand over Zane's face, a motion that usually woke him from even his deepest sleep, but still his eyes remained closed. I kissed the soft skin underneath his eye and let him be, I realized that he was to exhausted to be disturbed. After looking into his peaceful face once more I closed my eyes to sleep.

A loud bang, followed by even louder footsteps woke both Zane and I up instantly. The commotion sent Zane out of our bed quickly, fearing that traitors had entered the keep. I saw him reach for his blade promptly, holding it up in the darkness, and no doubt surveying the room with his nocturnal vision. "Forgive me you're highness!" Said a loud voice from the doorway. A great sigh of relieve over took me as I recognized Rei's soothing voice from the man who had spoken. I quickly raised myself up from the bed and fumbling to the corner lit a candle. Immediately I handed it to Zane who took it gladly, but I could see on his face that he was not happy with this interruption.

By the time I had lit another candle and held it up Rei began to speak again. With the candle's light I could see twelve or so guards behind my beloved friend, all heavily armed and on alert. "Again pardon me for this interruption but you're highnesses their is fighting all around the keep. The rebels outnumber us here, and it is no longer safe for you to remain here."

Zane and I both looked at each other at the same time, I knew that he could see the fear in my eyes and he quickly moved to my side to sooth me. "Truly, must we leave?" I asked bitterly, not wanting to leave my new home, and the peace that it brought with it. Zane held tightly to my hand as he leaned his head to mine, with his lips to my ear he said: "get dressed, I'll return for you soon." I held back tears as he kissed my, his lips lovingly yet forcefully pressed to mine. I choked back tears as he pulled away and was lead out by Rei. Before the door closed I heard Zane command that there be at least four guards placed at my door.

When the door closed I quickly scrambled to light more candles, desperate for the comfort of the light. Once a few candles had been lit I went to the window, holding the light up to the glass, hoping that I could see something, some sign that the news Rei had brought was untrue; I couldn't bare more fighting.

I realized quickly that I would be able to see nothing and put the candle down beside the bed. Cautiously and without delay I removed my night close and dressed in a pair of plain slacks and a white blouse. I sat on the bed to lace up my boots and pinned my hair up in a messy bush on top of my head, I didn't care what I looked like really, but I was nerves and had no idea what would happen if more fighting continued; would it break Zane and I up? Would we to be a casualty of this never ending war, like so many others?

Without another look at myself I ran to the door, expecting, though still startled by the four guards that Zane had posted there. All of them bowed when I entered the hallway, but I quickly stopped them: "tell me the truth; how bad is the fighting." I ordered, throwing off any hint from my voice that I was frightened.

"It is best if you and Zane get as far away from the city as possible my lady." Said one of the guards; a serpiente to my right. I sighed, but I knew that if he had said anything more I would lose control over myself, and it was times like this when I needed to stay as composed as possible.

Myself, and my four escorts, two in front of my and two in back made our way to the throne room, I hoped to find Zane there, and possibly get some more answers. Upon entering I found Zane with Rei and a few other of his advisors. "Zane" I called out, throwing myself into his arms when I got close enough, "tell me it isn't true" I said, even though I new that I could deny it no longer. He smiled at me, and lovingly stroked the feathers behind my hair; a gesture that I knew he was not completely comfortable with doing even after all this time.

"Rei" he said, turning away from me and looking back at Rei who stood a few feet away. "I would like you to accompany my wife to safety."

Rei and I both protested immediately.

Rei furrowed his eyes and dropped his usually high shoulders: "my lord I would wish to stay and see this rebellion through till the end."

"I know you would" Zane said matter-of-factly, turning back to me, curling his arms around my shoulders and pressing my close to him. "But there is no one else who I trust with this, I know no harm will come to Danica with you to protect her."

"Zane I'm not leaving you" I said, the tone of my voice would have been enough to halt the argument any other time, but Zane was forceful as he said, gently and in my ear. 

"I need to know that you are safe. No harm will come to me as long as I know that I have you to come back to, now please, go, you'll be saving us both."

A tear fell from my eye and rolled down my cheek as I wrapped my arms around him. He accented the motion and held me tightly in return. I was fearful, if I left would I ever see him again? "Go," he whispered into my ear again, his warm breath steaming my flesh as the desperation in his tone sent shivers through me.

I shock my head, plastering a fake smile on my lips, hoping that it would comfort him, but I knew that it didn't. Rei stepped away from the other advisers and approached me. I pressed my lips tightly to Zane's one final time before I pulled myself away, I could feel Zane lean into the kiss, and I knew that he was saddened when I pulled away. I followed Rei quickly; who led me to the balcony at the end of the thrown room. I didn't want to turn around, knowing that if I saw Zane again I would wont to be in his arms again, but I knew that he was watching me. I knew that he wouldn't turn until he knew that I was safely out of the keep and on my way to wherever it was that Rei was going to take me.

I could feel Zane's gaze on me, even though I didn't turn around until I reached the rim of the balcony. My head turning to see that Zane was indeed watching me, his face magnifying ever step that I took. I smiled at him, before stepping out into the darkness. My body quickly transforming into my Hawk counterpart, and quickly taking to the sky. I let my feathered wings glide under the wind as Rei and I headed out into the darkness of the bloody night.


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Snake Singer

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

Rei took me to a maze of immense caves located on the outskirts of serpiente land; I suppose no one would think that the royal family would hide in such a desolate place. Walking through the caves was tricky, and I tried to memorize the way but I quickly got lost and confused in the many twists and turns. Rei held a long torch, with a blazing flame up high so we both could see but the small light was no match for the hole of darkness that we tried to make our way through.

When we got to the center of the structure of caves I saw light up ahead. It brought a smile to my face thinking that I wouldn't be so alone here. As I stepped closer I entered a long cave; my shadow folding high up on the walls next to me as I tried to get to the source of light.

Finally I entered a large bio-dome-like structure to find Irene-Zane's sister-and her husband close by. I quickly ran to embrace them, wanting my arms to feel something familiar again. As I held Irene I felt her swollen belly, and couldn't help but smile when thinking of the new life that was growing inside. When I turned around I felt a warm hand on my shoulder, my first thought was that it was Zane but I soon realized that it was not, as I saw my mother's face beaming at me. I could tell by the lines of moisture on her otherwise dry face that she had been crying; had she been worried, or fearful? I had no idea.

"Mother!" I exclaimed throwing my arms around her shoulders, desperate for the comfort that I could get from her. My mother held me softly, yet I could feel her deep love for me in her gesture. "Has Zane arrived?" I asked pulling away form my mother's embrace. I looked to each person in the room for an answer, but all that I found was bowed faces and somber expressions. With the silence that came from my question I too lowered my head. _What could be happening at the Keep? _I asked myself grimly. I, like everyone else there knew that if Zane didn't return soon, then he never would.

Morning came to our secluded cave hide out sooner then I would have expected. Everyone else took comfort in sleep, or just blank rest. Irene curled herself against her husband, who rested his own hand on her swollen belly gently. I longed to have such a feeling for myself; to have Zane's ever comforting hands around me, to feel his warmth and strength so near by. 

I, unlike the rest, couldn't even sit down. My feet ached and blistered under the hard leather of my laced up boots but I couldn't bring myself to sit down, at least not until Zane was here, and in my arms.

I paced absently near the entrance to the dome shaped cave, back and forth, constantly. And though I could see nothing ahead of me I waited. My eyes desperately seeking the red blaze of torches, or the hustling footsteps of the royal guard escorting my serpiente husband to our secret hiding place. 

I continued to wait, hours passed, but still nothing, until finally I heard footsteps echo through the cave walls. Rei immediately grabbed me from the sides and pushed me to the side of the wide opening where I stood. He put his hand over my mouth and instructed me to be silent. Why would he want me to be quiet, it was Zane who was coming, or was it?


	3. Chapter 3

Title: Snake Singer

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

I held my breath as the torches that the intruders were carrying shown outsized shadows up the walls, making their forms look like monsters. Rei held me down at the side tightly with one hand, but I could feel him pull his blade closer as he moved it across my back. He held it tightly, ready to use it at the slightest hint of danger.

"Commander Rei, where are you!" Hissed a familiar voice from the group coming toward us. I knew it was Zane. I immediately lifted myself up and ran to him, and even though it was dark I found his arms perfectly. He accented my motion by curling his arms around me at my waist, pulling me in for a deep and passionate kiss. I leaned into his touch, unaware of the fleet of guards and attendants who looked on. "Are you all right?" Zane whispered, his hot breath bringing warmth to my skin. I didn't need to answer, I tightened my hold on him, and kissed the nape of his neck slowly; I could feel a smile curl across the skin on his face.

"Commander's," Zane interjected, turning away from me, but in no doubt releasing his hold over me. "Please stand guard here, and inform me if their is a problem immediately, I would like to take my leave now." The ten or so guards and fighters bowed their heads in compliance, and Zane quickly lead me away from them. With his hand on my hip he walked with me over to the back of the cave, far enough away from everyone else where we could have privacy, but close enough to not cause a panic among the guards.

Our little corner was dark, but I could map out Zane's features perfectly: "tell me" I whispered, stroking my fingers gently down his pale skin.

"Haente was taken over; I tried to stop them, Danica, but there were too many. Some were avian and others were serpiente, I tried, but I couldn't save it." I watched as a tear rolled from his red eye and caught it with the tip of my finger.

I smiled a loving smile at him as I said: "it's not important; what matters is that you're safe, and here with me." I lied, I didn't want him to know how important Haente really was to me; it was a symbol of everything that Zane and my union stood for. It was our city of peace that was now destroyed by hatred. I wrapped my arms around him, held him tightly, before I pulled his head down to my lap. I stroked his hair lightly, letting its black strands curl underneath my fingers. "Sleep now" I whispered gently, bowing my head down to his and kissing his cheek tenderly.

By the time I lifted my head again he was already asleep. His deep breathing calmed me more then anything else could have this night, and with him at least in my arms, I relaxed and slept. 

I awoke some time latter; everyone else, including Zane were still sleeping. I was restless, and knew that I would not find or enjoy anymore than the few hours of sleep that I had already experienced this night. Carefully I lifted myself up; in his sleep Zane had curled away from me, so he wasn't completely resting on my lap as he was before. 

Once I was standing I made sure that he was still fast asleep-at least one of us would have rest-and made my way across the cave of sleeping people.

At the entrance one of the guards stopped me; he placed a protective hand on the back of my shoulder. I turned, but wasn't surprised to see that it was Rei's hand that had touched me so. I mouthed to him silently to be quiet; I could tell on the look on his face that he wasn't willing to listen to my orders on this. "Please," I whispered forcing my voice into a royal and formal tone that he had no choice but to listen to. "I want to go outside, and see what is left of my kingdom. You may accompany me if you wish." I could tell that he wasn't happy with the first part, but the second part satisfied his protective nature slightly.

I turned and began to walk away, my head as high as I could carry it. Rei stepped in front of me quickly, his hand grabbing hold of one of the torches that hung at the entrance to our hideaway. With the long torch of blazing flame held high he led me through the maze of caverns and corridors; like before I tried to memorize my way but I soon became lost in the labyrinth of natural rock.

Finally, with a sharp turn, we made it to the exit. My eyes felt tight and dry in the brightness of the day, but I forced them to stay open. Rei only allowed me to take a few steps out of the hole that acted as a doorway but that was enough to see what I wanted to see. Off in the distance, beyond a tall blanket of lush treetops and miles of sky I could see smoke stacks rising high into the sky. My Haente, my city of peace, a place that Zane and I had always wished for even in the years before it could have ever been possible to achieve was on fire.

My heart sank, and then rose until it was caught in my throat, and I had to force myself to keep the rivers of tears behind my eyes at bay. I gripped tightly to the rocky wall behind me, and let myself lean up against it for support. "How could they do it, Rei?" I choked; my gaze still fixed on the red horizon of flames and smoke. "Why would they? Haente was supposed to be a city of peace, a city for avian and serpiente alike, where we could live without fear. Zane and I named it Haente, so that it would incorporate both the sounds of the hawks and the serpents."

Rei said nothing, but listened to every word that I spoke with sympathy and understanding. I turned to him, but from the look on his face I knew that he would not speak. He could not pass judgment on me anymore then he could on the people who had started this rebellion and destroyed Haente. I turned away from him, and let my gaze travel over the treetops again to the smoke stacks and flames. I wondered how long it would go on burning. Would the rebels take the city or just let it burn to its foundations?

My thoughts were interrupted by Rei who grabbed a hold of my arm tightly and pulled me back inside the hole-like doorway without a word. I opened my mouth to protest but I quickly silenced myself when I heard the familiar disturbance in the wind. Rei and I both looked to the sky, feeling the cold draft whip through the corridor where we stood with ease.

Within a matter of seconds the light blue sky was filled with several thousand flying birds; they were our kind, they were avian. Black, white, and golden feathers filled the sky as though it were some unique patch work quilt, and left no patch of sky exposed. Were they loyal to Zane and I, or were they the rebels? It was impossible to tell, so for now we had to assume that they were the rebels, and remain hidden or they wouldn't hesitate in destroying us. 

I could feel Rei reach for his blade and tighten his thick fingers around its holster; no doubt he thought the worse of my two theories.

It took what seemed like hours for the flock to fully get out of sight enough so that it was safe for Rei and I to emerged from our hiding place. As soon as we did Rei and I instantaneously looked in both directions of the sky, behind us to see if there were more flocks coming this way; but we saw none. Then, in the opposite direction, we watched the flock that we had just seen approach our destroyed and captured city with speed. "Do you think it was our army or the rebels?" I asked promptly and waited for a response.

"If they were still loyal to you, Danica, then they would not be going to the city" Rei answered truthfully. I was scared, but glad that he was truthful to me.

"But maybe-" I stopped myself, and like Rei stood alert when I heard the crackle of rocks being smashed underneath boots. I turned at once, knowing that the noise had come from behind me, but was only pulled behind Rei, who forcefully, yet protectively gave me no choice in the move. Rei and I both waited, listening as the crushing rock sound came closer and as it became more direct.

The noise stopped abruptly, and I clung to Rei's shoulder for reassurance that it was nothing. He gave me no such hope, and stayed high on alert like he once was. Finally with a gust of wind an avian man turned the corner fiercely. His drawn sword and bloodthirsty expression suggested only that he was not on our side and that he wanted a fight.

Rei quickly pushed me back into the cave and in a stern tough voice ordered: "Get help from the others." I choked back a denied cry, but I soon saw another avian man appear behind the one who had just appeared. I obeyed Rei's orders and turned toward the inner part of the caves. When my back was turned I could hear the cling of metal hitting metal and I knew that the fight had begun. I only allowed myself to take a few steps into the caves where I would call for help, I wouldn't leave Rei alone to fight. True, I had no weapons, but I could at least watch his back.

With a forced cry I called for the other guards, knowing my voice would carry and echo through the caverns and corridors as easily as if I were in the same room with them. I never should have come out here! I said to myself before turning back to Rei, who now was completely invisible from the hole where I had left him, but I could still hear the hitting metal, which was a relief, in strange ways.

I peeked my head out of the hole, and could see that they had moved away from the doorway. I imagined that Rei wanted to give me some time to get to the guards incase he was taken down; he was fighting against two armed avian's with only one blade. I turned back into the caves and could hear the desperate footsteps of the guards coming toward us. When I turned my head back out again I felt a forceful blow against my cheek and without knowing what had happened, my body fell back against the rock wall and then slipped down to the ground. I quickly composed myself and looked up, surprised to see another avian standing before me.

Without delay I stood and stepped away from the doorway and the avian. I knew I could fight his man, I had enough skills for that, but I was unarmed, and he, like the others, was wielding a long blade. My choices were limited, the cave and outcropping rock was several feet above the ground so I could not run, and the avian now blocked the doorway. My only hope was for the guards to get here, and fast, but I waited, and they were no where in sight. The avian who had knocked me down came closer to me, and in fear I backed away more, heading toward the ledge and not daring to look down. Rei called out my name, seeing my distress but still too occupied with the other two that he could not come to my aid.

Out of the corner of my eye I watched as one of the two avian's fighting Rei moved behind him and struck him hard on the back of his neck with the handle of his blade. I watched helplessly, only feet away as blood sprayed the ground and Rei fell. I screamed in terror, seeing that the other two avian's were also after me now.

I was at the ledge of the rocks, and knew that my only chance now that Rei was down and the guards had not come, was to change. At least in my hawk form I would have an advantage over the three avian's, who at best could only shape into crows or ravens and as a hawk I would overpower them in that respect.

Without another thought I let my body fall over the side. The wind striking me with the force of a thousand knifes upon my flesh as my delicate human skin fell through it like butter. Before I had completely fallen I heard Zane's terror filled voice as he screamed my name. He and the guards had finally come. I wasted no time, and even as I fell I allowed my body to morph and change. The power and body of my hawk second nature taking over quickly and with the flap of my powerful golden wings I forced myself back up against the wind. I flew high above the cliff, making sure that Zane could see that I was not hurt.

From the high altitude I watched as two of the shape shifters who were after me morphed into ravens. Their jet black feathers soaring against the wind to get to me. I was watchful of the two who were approaching me but I also watched the other who hadn't changed. The guards were quickly running toward him, yet he was not changing to escape them. Suddenly a shift over took him, but it was different from mine, or the others. Tall and thick wings that grew at either sides of his back sprouted high over his head, and glimmered in a crystal clear white that was brilliant even to me. He was obviously much older then his companions and myself. He had to be to be able to grow demi-form wings as was a privilege to avians who had managed to survive long enough to grow them.

I flapped my wings to get higher as I watched his wings slap against the guards who were approaching him. The sting of there sharp touch enough to send both of them slamming into the rock wall from where they came.

The winged avian flapped his wings up after he had gotten red of the guards and flew eloquently to the treetops and out of danger. 

I had no more time to watch what the older shape shifter was doing I had to turn my attention to the ravens who were still coming at me. I opened my delicate gold beak and hissed out a cry that said only "get away from me or else" but the ravens did not listen. I heard Zane call out my name again as one of the ravens threw its body against me. The jolt was painful, but nothing worse then a slap in the face in human terms, but in my small form another blow like that would bring me down. I opened my wings and clawed at them both, the sharp nails on my legs scratching at their feathers, and even tearing a few.

The ravens separated, one on each side of me, I knew that I had to keep my eyes on both of them but I couldn't. I slashed my claws and body against the larger one, hoping to bring it down with my strength. I tore a gaping hole across the back of its black wing but was unprepared in the one second as the other raven came at me. My body was thrust against the raven that I had just attacked, and he in return for the scratch that I had given him let his own claw scrape down my face and upper body, the cut so deep that it drew blood.

The painful jolt was too much for me and though I tried to flap my wings but I could not stay in flight. Zane called another terror filled echo of my name as I fell, to weak and hurt to use the wind to my advantage and flap my wings. I fell, thinking that this was my final moment until I felt hands around me. I tilted my small head up and could see that the demi-formed avian was grabbing a hold of me and he held my thin body in between his forceful hands.

He flew upward, taking me with him, and away from the caves of rocks where Zane and the guards stood. I let out a small cry toward Zane, hoping that my call would reach him. When he called my name and ran to the edge of the ledge, only the guards forceful hands holding him back from following me, and killing himself over the process.

I watched through half open eyes as the scene became a blur and Zane became less clear to me. Where would these traitors take me? I was wounded, would I survive? Would I ever see Zane, or the peace that meant so much to us again? 


	4. Chapter 4

Title: Snake Singer

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

When my eyes opened I could see nothing but black, and I felt tightened leather pressed against my eyes and forcefully tied at the back of my neck, with a note that twisted and pulled at several strands of my hair. I tried to move, but only found that my hands and feet had been bound, also with the same tight leather that blinded me. My movement bought a searing pain across my side. Even without seeing I knew that a large bruise had formed across the side of my body and as I took a deep breath I felt a few of my ribs crack. I knew that feeling all to well, and I guessed that at least one of my ribs was broken.

With the leather bandage over my eyes I realized that I had to rely on my other senses. With my sense of smell I tried to find out where I was, but the smell of this area was not unique and I could not decipher it. I could however smell the sour sent of dried blood and as I turned my head I felt the dry lines of blood on my face and neck. This wound must have been from when the raven shape shifters had me cornered and the larger one tore its claw across my golden feathery skin.

Ignoring the dried blood and the wound that was probably still bleeding I quieted myself. Trying to pick up any sound that might be around me. I heard the roar of water, as if I was in the very base of a waterfall. I could also hear muted voices, I could make out the sound, but the loudness of the water made it impossible to hear words unless they were closer.

Finally with my bounded wrists I cupped my hands into balls and dove my skin into the ground beneath me. It was sharp and jagged and pinched my skin as I ran my hand across it. _Could I be in a cave? Perhaps these rebels had not taken me very far from the caves that Rei had brought me to, and they'll find me soon. _

I prayed, a silent prayer that Zane and Rei would find me soon and take me back home. The thought of never seeing or feeling Zane again was too much for me.

"Well, well, well!" I heard a voice suddenly bark from in front of me. The loudness and harshness of the tone made me jump and brought the searing pain back to my side. "Look what we have here!" My eye brows furrowed, I new that voice, I knew that voice very well. 


	5. Chapter 5

Title: Snake Singer

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

Oxygen clogged my throat as the sound of the woman's voice rang through my ears. My eyes were covered but in my mind I could map out the woman's features. From her long stretched boots to her leather and fur skinned clothing. I knew that it was Adelina...

My bones and my muscle stiffened, I was afraid to move, with Adelina standing over me. "My pretty little Naga, look where fate has found you!" I heard her say, suddenly feeling warm fingers stretched out across my face. I felt her flesh trace the long gash across my skin and I could feel blood start to pour from the open wound. Her fingers went slowly down my cheek and then faster as she traced the bleeding wound down my neck and upper body.

I could feel tears swell up deep behind my eyes but I refused to cry.

Adelina's grip over me grew firmer and I found myself holding back cries of agony from her fingers pushing into my open skin. "Pretty little Naga!" She spoke, finely releasing me from her grip, and I found that I could breath once again. "I hear from my trackers that you were extremely easy to spot and capture." I wanted to speak, I wanted to tell her how much I hated her, and that Zane and Rei would find me any moment and kill her for doing this to me; but I held my tongue. "Incase your wondering, I sent a squad back to the caves where we found you." A lump caught inside my throat, what if she had captured Zane and the others, what if they were all dead. "Don't worry though, they abandoned the site and we found no trace of them there." I let out a sigh of relief, one loud enough for Adelina to hear, but I didn't care, Zane was all right, and I knew in my heart that he was on the way to find me.

"Speak, my little weakling, tell me what you have to say for yourself!" I could feel her hot breath smoldering across my skin, so I knew that she was close, but still I refused to speak. "Well then" she barked matter-of-factly as if I were an old toy that she had forgotten how to play with. I heard the commanding click of her boot heals as they strut across the unevenly hard surface of the ground. I had no idea is she had walked far away from me or if she was just pacing in front of me, but I twisted my face and followed the sound that her boots made; trying to know where she was at all times.

"Where to start?" She began, her boots still clicking against the ground, which made me come to the conclusion that she was pacing in front of me. I could feel a smile twist across her face. "I'm sure that you had forgotten all about me, my precious little Danica!" Her voice took on a motherly tone as the clicking of her heels stopped and I felt a hand stroke my cheek. Her fingers running delicately down the other side of my face, as though she suddenly cared very deeply for me, but her voice quickly turned violent again. "As I was saying; I'm sure that you hade forgotten all about me the day after you got Zane into your arms. He didn't kill me though." The clicking of her boots began again.

"Death was to good for me I suppose. Zane knew..." She stopped, as though the rest of the story were too painful for her to continue with. I found myself deeply intrigued though, honestly I hadn't really given a second thought to what had happened with Adelina. I had always assumed, that being that she had helped to murder the queen of the serpiente people that death would be her punishment. Zane had never spoken of her after she was captured, and I had always thought that it was only because it was too painful to him, because he had once been such good friends with her, and in a way loved her.

"Zane knew..." Her voice cracked slightly, as though her throat were clogged with tears. "Zane knew that I would except death, that I would not seek asylum or sanctuary with the other tribes of shape shifters. He knew that I would not question my punishment, so he let me live. I suppose you could call it living" she continued. "The Underground Municipality!" I had heard of it, though in truth I had never set foot in that place. It was only where the people who had done the most unthinkable crimes were taken. Avian and serpiente alike were imprisoned underground inside a municipality and were never to be set free again. Prisoners were often left to there own devices, and many turned to cannibalism to feed themselves. Many had tried to escape that dreaded place; they had tried to claw there way out through the dirt but the soil had been ridden with a deadly poison, that my own people were too afraid to use because it was so deadly.

"Prisoners barely last three months inside that place, but I held on. To live a year in that place is unprecedented and I did it." Her voice grew louder, and now she was screaming. "It was nothing to form an army, by then avian and serpiente alike banded together with a single goal. Freedom; and we got our freedom Danica, it took so long to get out, but we did it, and now we have another goal. Do you know what that goal is Danica?" She paused, as though waiting for me to answer but like before I said nothing. "All right then; our goal is to overthrow your peaceful little kingdom and kill Zane."

Anger swelled inside of me and as though I were a bomb ready to go off I screamed: "Never!" The second syllable of my word was barely out of my mouth when I felt her hand slap me. A blow so strong that it flung my head against the side of the wall. The wound on the side of my face had been hit again, and I could feel more blood pour from it again. The pain was so intense that I couldn't help but scream out in agony. 

"Danica, Danica, Danica!" She spoke, her voice taking on the tone of a child; I could barely hear her over the sound of my sobs. "Don't be sad" she said, stroking my face again. "I will kill Zane, but you will follow him soon after."

"No!" I screamed again, over and over until my voice gave out. The room around me went silent, and I longed to be able to see what was going on. Every bone in my bony was screaming in tense pain, and I let my back give out, and I fell sideways onto the sharp ground. My hands and feet still bound, but I had no strength to get back up. I didn't want to live without Zane, and I never would. I tried to stop my weeping, trying to hear what was going on.

"Silence her!" I heard Adelina command, though to whom I knew not. "I'm going to find Zane, make sure that she can't make a sound."

I let out another scream, pleading with her to take me instead of Zane, that my death would cause more pain to him then his own death but I heard no more from her. 

I waited, not knowing what she meant by silencing me, or what would happen. I tried to be still and quiet, and sense what was going on around me. I continued to wait...

Finely I felt a sharp leather boot slam its heel into my stomach. The pain sent sharp surges up my body and magnified the pain that I was already feeling from the attack earlier that day. Another Kick came into my side, and another, so many that I lost count. From my mouth I could taste the sour poison of blood as it dripped from my throat and onto the ground where my head rested on. I knew that in that second I was dying...


	6. Chapter 6

Title: Snake Singer

Disclaimer: Characters and poem belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

My eyes opened fiercely and my eyelashes brushed against the thick leather of the cover over my eyes. I gasped for breath, amazed that I was still breathing at all. My throat and lips felt so dry that with each breath that I took I felt a stronger pinch of pain. I could smell dry blood all around me and I could taste it as I tried to wet my lips with my tongue. I opened my mouth wide to speak, but no words flowed past my mind, just the stressed rattle of my voice.

I took another breath, but with each breath that I took the pain from the beating that I had just received got stronger and stronger. I wanted to scream out, I wanted to plead, cry, or die, anything but this. I felt completely helpless, and the only image that I could get into my mind was Adelina hunting Zane down and killing him.

Suddenly I felt a warm hand slid underneath my head and pull it up slightly. The hand was gentle, loving almost, completely different from Adelina's touch, even when she was being nice to me. I felt warm fingers pull back my flowing golden hair and place a warm wet rag against my skin. The moisture felt magnificent and I could feel the blood being wiped away from my skin. Small drips of water trickled down from the rag and I let them fall past my lips and into my mouth and they helped to ease my thirst. 

After the stranger with the kind touch wiped my face completely clean he took the rag away, and then held up a hard object to my skin. I only realized that it was a cup after water began to flow into my mouth like a river, filling my throat with much needed liquids. "Whhh ar yoo!" I choked out, trying to form words, but quickly realizing that my lips were swollen. I did not hear the stranger answer, but I felt warm lips brush against my forehead in a delicate kiss. Who was this? The hands on my face felt so familiar yet strange and unnatural at the same time. "Whhh!" I tried to say again but I felt fingers against my lips, stopping me from continuing.

**_"I wish to you sunshine, my dear one,_**

my dear one. And treetops for you to soar past."

I recognized the stranger's words; they were the old "Hawksong" lullaby that my mother had sung to me as a child. A lullaby that I had sung to my younger brother Xavier when he was a child, and to Gregory Cobriana; Zane's brother, before he had died on the battlefield. The stranger's voice was muffled, and I couldn't make out if the tone was from a male or a female. The words were soothing though, and as my eyes closed, ready from dreams I listened to the kindness that I felt from the voice and felt at ease.

**_"I wish to you innocence, my child, my child. I pray you don't give up to fast._**

Never know pain, my dear one, my dear one. Nor hunger nor fear nor sorrow. Never know war, my child, my child. Remember your hope for tomorrow."


	7. chapter 7

Title: Snake Singer

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

When I next awoke I felt quite different. My body ached, but I wasn't nearly in as much pain as I had been when my eyes had last closed.

I stirred in my sleep, tossing my head from one side of sharp rock to another. The pain from the movement was very little and I was amazed at how relaxed my muscles were. The sleep that I was drifting in and out of was calm and I found myself wanting to go deeper and deeper into the safe sanctuary that my dreams gave me.

I heard a voice, it was soft, muffled and I couldn't understand it. I paid it no mind; I just closed my eyes tighter and tried to go deeper inside myself. The voice spoke again only this time more desperate, as if it were calling out to me. I waited, as though in a parallel universe, not entirely awake yet not entirely asleep. The voice called out yet again, only this time its tone was deeper, and sadder, as though tears were attached to it.

I felt warmth on my face, the strong tingling sensation of warm fingertips across my cheek. The touch was comforting and I leaned my face the other way and let the warm hand cup under my chin. "Danica!" I heard the voice call out, desperation in the strong accent as if begging me to answer. I felt myself coming back and I heard the call again, pleading with me, calling out my name, begging me to awake...

My eyes opened and stinging beads of sleep stung my inner eye as air hit it. I ached to close my eyes again and fall back into my deep sleep, but the man above me commanded my attention. His face was filth-ridden and his jet black hair a mess and tousled over his face as he looked down at me. His red eyes swelled with tears as he called out my name again.

I blinked, afraid that the man above me was just a dream or a fragment of what I wanted to see. I closed my eyes again but when I opened my eyes again he was still there.

He reached another hand down to me and held my face in both of his palms as though it were a delicate jewel. His fingertips brushing away the stray hairs from my face. "Danica" he said again.

"_Zane_" I whispered, my voice still shaky. I lifted my hands up to his forearms and pulled him down close to me. When he was close enough he lowered his face and brushed his lips against mine, tenderly, lovingly. The sweetest thing in the world was having his lips on mine. When he lifted his face back up I hardly wanted to abandon the feeling of being so close to him again. "Am I dreaming?" I asked faintly, his hands still on my face and his hot breath steaming my face.   
"Only if it's my dream" he said sweetly, lowering his head and kissing me again. Only this time the kiss was short and delicate. Sweet and tender skin brushing against mine.

"What happened?" I asked wearily not remembering any kind of escape from the cave where Adelina was holding me captive. "How did I get here?"

Zane lowered his head flatly, cupping his palm against my cheek and feeling the soft skin on my face lovingly. "We found the compound where the rebels were hiding you seven days ago. We killed all that were there, but we could not find Adelina. You had been badly beaten." He continued his eyes angered and icy with rage. "You were unconscious when we found you, and have been ever sense." He took a slow breath, I could tell by the stiffness of his features that he had been very worried. "We nursed you as best as we could."

"Who's we?" I asked, my eye browse furrowing slightly as my eyes searched the cave's structure.

"I was here also." I heard Rei's voice from behind Zane and as soon as he had spoken he immerged from the shadows, his face hardened at first, but a slick smile forming soon. "It is good to see you awake."

I smiled, as best as the sore mussels beneath my skin would let me. "Was it you then?" I asked, "was it you who was singing to me." I remembered that clearly, the soft voice that seemed so familiar yet distant who sang to me after I had been beaten and stroked my face with smooth hands and gave me water. "Was it?" I asked again, but I could tell by the confused look across both Zane and Rei's faces that neither of them had been the one that comforted me when I was hurt.

"It was not me." Rei confessed truthfully, and I knew it to be the truth, Rei wasn't the kind of person who would sing to me, not matter how hurt I was. My eyes traveled to Zane, but he to denied it. 

"It was probably just a dream." Zane said comfortingly and I lowered my eyes, I knew that it was not a dream, it had to be real, I knew that it was.

Night lowered its darkened face over the silent land slowly. Zane had helped me sit up and from my spot I watched the sky turn from a delicate light blue to a vibrant red and then a effervescent purple and then finely to a calm black. The sky was filled with stars, tiny beads of light hanging high above me. Zane held me sweetly, his arm holding my sore back perfectly still and applying just enough pressure that maid my mussels relax. "What's to happen now Zane?" I asked, my voice taking on a childish quality as I contemplated what our life would be like now. We were still the royal family but our Kingdome had been taken over by rebels and our place in that new world would be very small.

"We will go to the Mistari Lands; it's the only place that's safe for us now." 


	8. Chapter 8

Title: Snake Singer

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

By the end of the next day we were well on our way to the Mistari lands. Rei and Zane had constructed a make shift litter for me and I rode as comfortably as possible inside its safe confines. I lay mostly on my back but occasionally I turned myself to the side so that I might watch the beauty of the passing scenery. I had never seen these lands from the ground, I was more accustomed to flying over head and seeing an aerial view, and I had never imaged the sear beauty of the wild countryside. 

The Mistari lands were unique to Zane and mines people because it was clean and pure; its tree-lined borders had never been tainted by the wicked sin of bloodshed that the war afforded our lands with. Its misty meadows and high cliffs were never blurred with the overpowering sight of death and decay. 

I felt alive again, and though I knew full well that the life I would now go on and lead would be completely foreign from the one that I had known all of my life I was confident that I would be at peace with it. 

On the road to the palace we found a group of travelers traveling from my now taken over city of Haente; my presses Haente that was supposed to be a symbol of Zane and mines everlasting love, and the everlasting peace that that would bring to our two nations. Discreetly, and not giving away how we were we inquired about the battle and what had happened to the city after it had fallen.

"Destroyed!" An elder man cried, the wrinkles on his face firming slightly as his face changed bitterly. "The rebels came in and destroyed our house... the houses of so many others." The elder man bowed his head and wrapped his arms around the shoulders of a woman how I guessed was his wife. At the litter I watched as three young children fumbled behind them. The oldest child, a boy, who to me looked no older then fourteen held within his long thin arms the limp body of another child; a forth child. I watched the boy hand the sick child over to the mother gently, she took the young one in her arms and I could see that one of the child's arms was missing and a blood-ridden tourniquet was wrapped around the severed limb. "My child!" The father cried out to Zane, their fiery eyes meeting head on. "Look what they did to my child!" The man pointed to the wounded one within the mothers arms, she bent her head down and kissed the dusty child's face, and though I was not a mother myself I knew all two well her pain, her anger, her suffering.

We continued on our way soon after that, though the sight of the family and the wounded child stayed in my mind. How could it happen, how could the war that had taken so much from everyone is starting again.

Twilight approached the land quickly and before I knew it, and as the first hint of stars formed in the sky we encountered our first Mistari guard. The large orange and black Bangle Tiger casually watched us from the end of the road. Its gigantic paws striking the ground hard as it paced back and forth across the road. I heard Rei approach it, his feet making an uneven sound against the ground. He called out to the animal, first in the ancient Mistari tongue and then in ancient avian that I understood perfectly. "We come baring no harm, peace is our only wish, let us pace!" I watched, half turned on my side as the tiger looked him over, his long yellowish teeth protruding from underneath its furry mouth. I heard a slight growl escape its lips but soon the tiger slacked, his hind feet resting against the ground as if he were comfortable with out presence, and within a matter of seconds the tiger had morphed into a young woman with dark black hair, her height barely five feet tall which was amazing sense in her tiger form she was at least six feet long. The woman was slender and she wore a simple uniform of slacks, a white shirt, and tanned vest with Mistari symbol's embroidered in them. 

The woman hastily introduced herself as Chiyo and apologized for not recognizing whom we were when we first arrived. As we talked by the litter another tiger emerged from the trees on the side of the road and stood alert as he searched Chiyo out. "It is all right Paulo." She called out to him and he bowed his head as if he understood and moved back into the shadows of the trees. "Come." Chiyo instructed us, "I will take you to the city, and the Disa and Dio will be most pleased to see that you are safe."

Chiyo lead us down the road further, she returned to her tiger form and we followed her at a brisk pace, a tigers speed was incredible, even when it was just walking. Chiyo lead us past the high walls of stone that I had seen and recognized from my last trip her as being where the tigers slept on warm days. 

Several minutes latter we were lead into the heart of the Mistari city. The high stone walls giving way to a full city of streets that were lined with small, or large houses and in the center of it all stood the Mistari palace, which was far more luxurious then the Keeps that Zane and I had both grown up in. The Mistari were an art loving people with a desire for love and beauty rather then war. Its society was practically a painting in progress, a great work of art that was forever changing and evolving but always becoming more beautiful.

When the palace gate opened I was surprised to see the Disa and Dio themselves waiting for us there. The Dio embraced Zane firmly as though they were old friends, which if I recall correctly they were once when they were children. I heard him say loudly "We all thought that you were dead!"

The Disa, with her long robes of draped fabric hanging from her skirts and sleeves approached me and with her thick main of black hair that nearly went down to her ankles she kneeled beside the litter and placed her warm hand on my cheek and whispered lightly. "It is good to see you and Zane safe Danica!"

Several of the Mistari guards showed Zane and I to our room, which was thankfully much better and much more desired then the caves that overall we had all spent a week in. Zane and Rei both walked on either side of me as if an attacker would jump out from the very walls of the palace and attack. 

We were lead to a large room with white walls and a large bed with silk beadings and large painting hanging from the wall. Beautiful designs and symbols splashed with color against the thick canvas and hung with gold colored designs that made up frames. I was in awhh of it beauty, the room that I stayed in before when I was hear seemed nothing like this and I gasped at the uniuqeness of it. The Mistari guards took me from the litter and placed me on the bed and before I knew it they had all disappeared behind the open doorway that lead out into the hallway.

"Are you all right?" Zane asked, placing his hand on my cheek and kissing me sweetly, his lips brushing ever so softly against mine.

"I feel better now that I am here." I whispered back, his face still so close to mine that I could feel his soft breath against my skin.

"I hope we are not interrupting!" Said the voice of the Dio as he entered the room through the same open doorway. Zane lifted himself up quickly, but he was not ashamed of the affection that he was showing. "Zane, will take an audience with me, their are some pressing matters that I think you should hear of." I lifted my hand up and wrapped my fingers around his wrist as if to stop him and he turned to me with questioning eyes, I knew that he wanted to go but still...

"It is all right Danica, it is not dangerous." The Dio confirmed, his eyebrows raising as if giving Zane a secret code.

Zane smiled at me, but I could see a slight nod of his head as he turned back towards me and said: "I'm sure that it will only take a moment, I will return soon." I bowed my head, I knew he would go even if I did protest, but my objection would only make it harder for him. I released my firm grip form his hand. Within a moment he was gone, following the Dio out the door to discuses what I could only dread as more bad news.

"Do not fret Danica, I'm sure that it is something trivial and unimportant!" The Disa, with her tall slim said to me. She moved from the doorway toward me, the lose fabric of her gown flowing gently with her movement. She sat on the bed beside me, her thin and beautiful face looked chiseled within thousands of Disa's before her and I could recognize a peace within her that I myself longed to have. She pushed aside the long black hair from the sides of her face and her high cheekbones stood out against her milky skin. "I have sent from the doctor, and he will be here in the morning to tend your wounds, though I'm sure that Zane did a good enough job at that." I smiled, and couldn't stop a slight laugh that past through my lips, and she too laughed.

"Tell me, for I must know, what has happened to it all?" I asked, my voice cracking with the pain that I was now realizing that I felt for the destruction of so much, and that little child in the mothers arms, a mothers arms who will never be able to give her child back its innocence. 

"Danica, you have no place their now. The rebels will never allow you back there; they are angry and do not understand now that anger only spurs on more anger. The people are suffering yes, but it is no longer your duty to help them, you have done all that you can do for them." Her words were wise, and I found myself comforted, and hanging on every word that she said. She rose up, her long gown again swaying with the gentle movements that her body gave. She approached the window and with only a slight swipe of her finger she pulled back the long curtain and looked out at the blackened night and the small gaps of light coming from the houses below, and then off in the distance, for miles was the darkness of the forest that seemed so deadly know. I looked out at it, the sky that went on for miles as though it were a hand outstretched and searching for something, but for what I knew not.

"That is all that it is Danica!" She said, looking back at me. "It is just land and sky, and we as leaders, we lead our people we do not own them, we cannot control them as easily as we would like." I understood her, her words striking me like a knife against the thick binding of my skin. If nothing else in my life I understood her words. I felt like a child just being awakened to the world; I had never thought of my position in such a way and it seemed to calm my sadness for what had happened. 

"Is that how you see yourself?" I asked delicately.

She turned back out to the window, her long hair blowing from a slight breeze: "I can see myself only as one of them." I watched her now, expecting anticipating another word, but the footsteps entering the room sent my head spinning around. It was Zane who had come back and before I knew it the Disa was gone and the door was closed.

"Zane?" I cried, holding out my arms for him and he gladly filled them, his eyes distant though, and I longed to fill them. "What happened, what did the Dio say to you?"

"It was as he said, nothing dangerous!"

I asked him several more times what had gone on in the other room and what was said, but that is all that he would say of it. _It was as he said, nothing dangerous! _I wanted to know more, but soon he was drifting off to sleep in my arms and I in his and all thought of the mysteries conversation left my mind. I had sweet dreams that night, for the first time in so many nights and I felt calm and relaxed when the next morning I awoke, but if only I had known the true danger that was about to embark on us all...


	9. Chapter 9

Title: Snake Singer

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

The following day was beautiful; the sun hung high in the sky and shadowed the land lightly in a golden glow. The Disa's doctor arrived promptly in the morning hours and examined me thoroughly and found that beyond the bruises and sore muscles I would be fine. The Disa herself accompanied the doctor into Zane and mines chamber and after he had left she sent for some of her handmaidens and with them they brought a host of new gowns that all resembled the Disa's from last night and were in an assortment of colors.

I chose the peach gown for this summer day. The fabric flowed like waves against the shore of my body with an exquisite train that dangled several feet behind me and sleeves that they themselves went to the floor. One of the handmaidens who whispered that her name was Sasha pulled my hair back in the Mistari style. Tight in the front and lose in the back with extended braids and buns placed in to make my hair seem thicker and fuller. Sasha took a wet wash cloth to my face and wiped gently at my skin and then placed a cold liquid across my skin that made the shade of flesh glow as though I were and angel.

After I was completely done up Zane took hold of my hand and said that there was something that he wanted to show me. I smiled and followed him as he led me through the long passageways and corridors of the Mistari palace. He never once faltered and I guessed that he had traveled these halls several times in his life.

"This is my favorite place here." He said opening one final door and revealing a host of small gardens beyond the palace gates that led into the woods beyond. I couldn't believe my eyes, the vivid red and white roses that lined against the green ferns and tall hydrangeas, and above everything a tall fence stood that was lined with wisteria, its long vines flowing down with small violet flowers at the tips.

"How do you know about this place?" I asked, brushing my fingers against the top of a red rose, its voluptuous petals curling their silky matter under my touch.

"The Dio and I were once good friends and I often found myself playing as a child within these halls and one day I stumbled upon it. It is an ancient place of peace. In the Mistari legends it says that all who walk amongst this place will know peace and love all the days of their life." He kissed me, realizing himself that this place might have changed him as a child and chased him to hunt after peace and not war like all before him. I left his side and went to travel through the garden on my own, breathing in the thick scent of herbs and letting my fingertips glide along the tops of the many flowers and substantial bushes that lined the land like a painting of abstract lines.

As I pasted near one of the corners of the garden I heard a rustling from the leaves of a reddish bush. I stopped and waited to see what it was that was climbing through the lavish vegetation. Finally a plump orange cat emerged, its hanging stomach wobbling as it approached me and brushed up against the hem of my dress as if it wanted me to pick it up. I reached down for it and curled it within my arms. "What's your name?" I whispered, searching the cat's neck for some kind of caller or identification. I found none, but scratched the thick hair on its head softly. The cat purred and leaned into my touch and I felt Zane's hand brush across my lower back and then curl under my waist until he was holding me tightly and with the cat still in my arms he leaned in and kissed me softly. His warm lips pressing to mine, holding the body of my mouth within an inflamed embrace; I longed to stay in this embrace forever.

The unexpected sound of the door that we had come through to find this beautiful place hitting the wall as it opened took us both away from this embrace. From behind the tiny door came the handmaiden Sasha who had done my hair earlier that morning. Both Zane and I looked at her; the plump orange cat still curled within my arms. Sasha held tightly to the door handle and her chest rose and fell harshly as she tried to catch her breath, the look of fear on her face was apparent. "Sasha what is it?" I asked, letting the cat jump from my arms and taking a step toward her, Zane grabbed hold of my hand was barely a breath behind me.

"Malady Danica" she said hoarsely, her lips peeling slightly from the dryness that surrounded them. "You and Master Zane must come; The Dio and Disa demand it!" Her eyebrows furrowed and her posture slumped slightly as her knuckles began to turn white from holding the doorknob so tightly. 

"What is it Sasha? What's happened?" I asked, my eyes turning to face Zane but he too had no idea what all of this was about. 

"The devil has come to the palace."

I turned again to face Zane, still having no idea what she could be talking about and what it could mean. Zane facial expressions had changed dramatically within the few seconds that I had turned from him and now turned back. His mouth hung slightly open and his eyes widened. He looked distant, as if he were standing across the world instead of right next to me. "Zane was is it?" He turned to me, his eyes still distant. He held up his hand and brushed my cheek with the back end of his fingertips, then let out a long sigh:

"Come, we must go!"

I followed Zane without saying a word; desperately trying to search his face and body language for some kind of clue as to what was going on. He walked tall and straight, taller and straighter then I had ever known him to walk, his head almost a pillar of silence that belonged atop a statue of a heroic figure and not the living breathing man in front of me. He walked ahead of me, but only a few steps and held tightly to my hand, his fingers squeezing mine several times on the long journey to the Disa and Dio's thrown room.

Sasha, lead us the entire way into the thrown room, through Zane, I'm sure could have found this place with his eyes closed. She opened the narrow doors and led us into the large vaulted ceiling room. The floors and walls shined in a dark Amber color as if they were made out of gold and several murals and paintings hung across the entire wall and went so high that I could barely make out the designs on the top ones. Toward the middle of the room, and in the very back were the Disa and Dio's thrown, which were completely different from the towns that Zane and I were used to sitting on. The great chairs, which the royalty sat on, were several steps higher then the floor and like the floor were, died a deep Amber color.

Zane and I approached the thrown, stopping only when Sasha stopped. She got half way across the room when she halted and curled one leg, bowing to the Disa and Dio who sat like statues. After she had bowed she turned with her eyes lowered and left the room through the same way that she had come. "Zane, Danica" said the Dio after the great doors had closed. "Please come!"

Zane and I obeyed and my mind was spinning with what was happening, had we done something wrong? Was this because we had gone into the garden? Zane quickly walked up the stairs and stopped only when we stood face to face with them. "Zane... I am sorry!" Said the Dio, he reached his arm out and grabbed the side of his arms.

"You're sorry for what; I don't understand what is going on?" I searched the faces of The Dio and Disa both but found no answers then I turned to Zane, hoping and praying that the answers that I was looking for would be there, but they were not.

As I searched Zane's face the doors to the thrown room opened again, and I heard the creak of the movement sharply through the walls as the foundations shook slightly. I turned, and watched as to long, lean, and clocked figures approached us.


	10. Chapter 10

Title: Snake Singer

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

The cloaked figures walked fiercely, as though they themselves were great beasts on the prowl, hunting their sacred lands for food or protection. They seemed to scan the room without moving their heads, yet I was assured that they knew that we were the only people in the room.

"What is the meaning of this!" Shouted the Dio, stepping between Zane and I and beginning to walk down the stairs that separated the thrones from the floor. As he approached the mysterious hooded figures Zane pulled me aside, his hands grabbing a hold of my shoulders tightly and dragging me to the far side of the thrown.

"Danica, listen to me! Whatever happens, don't fight it! Do you understand!"

"Zane?" I questioned, my voice barely higher then a whisper. "I don't..." before I could finish Zane pushed me against him and his lips were embracing mine again. I was lost, helpless within his hold and I could not resist. Immediately after releasing me he was gone from my side, spirited away it seemed by the wind and by the time I turned he was half way down the stairs and close behind the Dio. I looked then to the Disa, who had also left her seat and was watching her husband approach the figures. Her movement sent her long black hair reeling, pushing it to both sides of her neck and framing her face and skin as though it were a great ebony jewel. Though the Disa did not turn her head to look at me I felt her gaze meet mine and I knew that she herself didn't know the full extent of what was happening.

I ignored her silence and stillness and followed Zane down the stairs without an argument and as I neared the bottom I could hear her footsteps following me. Once to the bottom of the stairs I stood beside Zane, taking his hand in support of whatever was about to happen.

The two hooded figures were still, standing straight and tall in front of the four of us. "What is the meaning of this!" The Dio shouted again. "How dare you come into my palace uninvited!" The Dio's voice towered through out the tall room, as though the very sound was a great wave crashing against a stormy seacoast.

One of the cloaked figures stepped forward and a long arm extended out from the bundles of dark fabric that surrounded the person in darkness. The skin was pale and smooth, giving way to a delicate wrist and long slender fingers. The hand reached up to the hood and in a single swipe she pulled away the lining and material. My heart stopped in my throat at the sight of the figure. From the long and lean face, to the high cheekbones and black silver hair, she was exactly as I remembered her. This woman before me, the same who had once been in love with Zane, the same who had kidnapped me and almost killed me, and had it not been for Zane and Rei I would have. It was Adelina. 

I tried to breathe, I tried to form words, but it seemed as though I had vacated my own body and no longer had control over it. I reached my hand up and clutched Zane's shoulder, my fingers diving into his thick and flexed muscles. He had suddenly tensed greatly in the last few seconds and I could feel his anger as though it was steam rising off of skin.

"Adalina!" Zane called out, his voice was strange to me and I had never heard him speak in this tone before, it was foreign and unrecognizable to me. At that moment I didn't know if he would lash out at her or turn to me and take me in his arms. Either way she would be infuriated.

"What is the meaning of this!" The Dio echoed again, his voice louder and harsher then it had been before.

"Shhh now," she whispered, lifting her thin index finger and placing it gently between his flaring lips. "Calm yourself Dio, I mean you no harm."

"And my guests?" He questioned, quickly looking her over for any concealed weapons but it was impossible to tell with all of the material that cloaked her.

Adalina took a step back, removing her finger from the Dio's lips and bowing her head, though a sly smile still twisted across her face. For a brief second before lifting her head again my eyes locked on hers and she to mine. I could see the utter hatred in her eyes and a slight hint of insanity that I had heard when she held me prisoner. "As the new leader of the serpiente people I have come to collect a prisoner, someone who had betrayed my people in the gravest of ways and who must be punished." At that moment I couldn't breath, and every pain that Adalina and her guards had inflicted upon me flared up again. I felt the skin tense and I could taste the sour liquid of my own blood filling my mouth. I clasped tightly to Zane's hand, in part comforting myself and in part holding him back from her.

"Zane Cobriana, I here by take you prisoner in the name of treason against your nation!"

"What!" I screamed, my lips quivering with the slight hint of tears as I clutched the side of Zane's arm. Zane was utterly still, and silent, putting up no protest by her words or actions.

"I trust that you will come without combat, but if you need to be restrained I have brought the necessary manpower." Adalina's eyes were fiery and I knew that Zane's eyes were just the same.

"And my wife?" He asked, his voice soft, and seperet from the tone that it had taken on before.

Adalina's smile widened. "She will be punished by her own people, as they see fit."

"My own people?" I questioned. "I am the Tuuli Thea and I have done nothing but help my people."

Again her smile widened, and a slight cackle passed through her lips as she turned to face the still cloaked figure that stood beside her. All eyes turned to the mysteries stranger and we all watched as a long hand came up from the inner curves of the cloak and pulled the hood away, revealing the stone-like face of a man. My mouth hung wide as I looked upon the man. His light eyes staring me down as I looked into them. His dark blond hairs lose around the sides of his face, haloing a long scar that slide across his face. "Vasili...." I whispered, my voice barely forming the words.

"Yes!" He said, his voice strong and cold.

"How could it be?" I begged, stepping forward from Zane until I was directly in front of him. "You're dead, you died years ago."

Vasili said nothing, but his eyes pieced into me like daggers that far to easily exposed me.

"What is this?" Zane asked, I heard his voice but couldn't bear to answer him, and even though it hurt me to look upon Vasili I couldn't take my eyes away from him.

"This is Vasili!" Adalina spoke, her voice almost mocking Zane's confusion and anger. "This is Danica's pare bond, and rightful husband!"

"How could you do this to me!" Vasili barked his voice more harsh then I had ever heard it before. I was speechless, I couldn't move, I was out of my body again and searched my brain for answers to all of these puzzling questions, but within me I found none. "Marry the son of our people's greatest enemy."

I shook my head, I opened my mouth to speak but no words came out. I felt my lips move to form some kind of sentence or apology; whatever his eyes commanded of me but still nothing. "Danica?" Zane called out, I tried to turn my head to look at him but again nothing happened. "Danica?" He called out again, but I couldn't look away from the dead mans eyes before me. 

_Had he really died on that battlefield? Had he been alive this whole time? Or by some twisted act of fate or cruel turn of magic had he been brought back from the dead to walk among the living, like some kind of zombie from a frightening fairy tale._

"You see Danica," said Adalina, interrupting the silence that maintained everyone's confusion. "Vasili, has been alive this entire time, and wasting away in the Underground Municipality! I found him; I saved him when he was just days away from death."

"Adalina gave me hope that you were still alive, and now I come and find this!"

I moved; a jerk of my limbs because I had been still so long. I let out a long breath and filled my lungs again with another breath, the air felt like poison between my veins. "I thought you were dead." I choked, my voice crackey with tears.

"And you, my wife, I knew you were alive!" Vasili's words pierced me, in a way that nothing and no one had ever pieced me before.

"Wife!" Zane interrupted, "Danica is my wife, not yours."

"Vile satyrs!" Vasili spat back, "hold me prisoner for years so you could betray my people and put my wife under your webs of lies and deceit. Take him away Adalina!"

"What!" I yelled immediately turning and throwing myself in front of Zane, though her long white hand was already extended toward him.

"Danica come!" Vasili yelled, clutching my wrist with tight and forceful fingers and pulling me away. Zane and I clutched hands, but I could not fight Vasili's hold and pull over me, and Zane could not fight the arms of Adalina and her guards who had entered the room only seconds before and already held each of Zane's arms behind his back and drove him away as though he were an animal. 

"Zane..." I screamed, as they dragged him from the room and I saw him for the last time. Vasili's hands wrapped around me as he pushed my face into his chest in some kind of loving embrace, and myself struggling against him. 


	11. Chapter 11

Title: Snake Singer

Authors Notes: Thank you so much to TallemeraRane who helped with the editing of this chapter. 

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

Night came to the Mistari Lands like bullets from a cruel but natural gun. I found myself alone, for the first time in my entire life. As a child I had always had my mother, or my brother Xavier, or some other family member beside me, and after my marriage, Zane and I were never apart. But now, within the walls of this strange palace, and my fate in the hands of a man that I had once trusted my entire life to, a man that I thought could do no wrong, now seemed as though his personality had chipped off as though it were a piece of portable skin that hung against his body like a cloak.

I stood beside the window in the room that just the night before belonged to Zane and I. My hands clutched to the sides of the peach dress that the Disa had given me earlier that morning, only now it was torn and shredded from the conflict earlier.

In the background I could hear Vasili's boots clicking and hitting the hard floor of the bedroom as he paced back and forth. His commanding and stern walk ever present even though I was turned away from him. I kept my eyes on the dark landscapes and forests that surrounded this land, but I could feel Vasili's cold stare upon me, reducing me, disregarding me, and puncturing holes into my soul.

Rain was falling. I remember that the clearest from that night. Small waves of rain fell lightly on the earth, the beads of water so small that they couldn't even be considered raindrops. I felt a cold breeze push at me as it came through the open glass and moved my hair away from my face. I didn't speak, I didn't move, whether if it was because I chose not to or I simply could not I don't know.

Vasili's steps seemed to haunt me, and I anticipated them before his feet even hit the floor. I sensed his turns as he curved back onto the line that he had created as he paced. "We will go back to the Hawks keep as soon as possible – in the morning I think. I will be reinstated as your Alistair immediately, and soon we will bring our people back to the solitude and pride that they once had while true Avian's ruled over them."

I said nothing, but in my mind I kept hearing the Disa's words: _"It is just land and sky, and we as leaders, we lead our people. We do not own them, and we cannot control them as easily as we would like."_ Her words seemed wiser and struck me as being more truthful than they had been when she said them to me before. I thought about what Vasili was saying and if what our people really wanted were true Avian's on the thrown. Would they be so easily satisfied with the actions he had contemplated?

Vasili spoke again, but I blocked it all out. I was still unmoved from my position in front of the window and my thoughts turned to Zane. He's out there, in this rain, on his way to the Underground Municipality, to suffer hells and tortures that I cannot even begin to imagine. Will I ever see him again?

"Danica are you listening to me?" Vasili barked, his voice forcing me out of my thoughts and back into the cold room where I truly stood. Again I didn't answer, but I moved my head slightly and he took that as a sign that I was listening to him.

Zane...

The bedroom door opened suddenly, but all I heard was Vasili's movements stopping, his shoes no longer hitting and clicking the floor. The silence of that action caused me to flinch. I bowed my head low, recognizing the soft voice that came in from behind me. It was Sasha, the Disa's sweet and faithful servant. "Milord," she said, addressing Vasili, who most likely paid no attention to her. "Milord, Naga Adelina has left the boarders of Mistari lands and should reach the Serpiente Keep within the next day." Vasili said nothing, but I heard his boots clicking against the floor again as he began to pace.

_Naga Adalina? _When had she decided to take my place as Naga? I cringed when I thought of what she would do now that she was in power. Would she force Zane to become her companion just as Vasili was doing to me?

"Milady Shardae?" Sasha said from behind me, her gentle hand startling me as she placed it on my shoulder. I turned, my eyes not daring to search out Vasili but staying only on her. "Milady, I will help you undress now if you would like." Her voice was meek, barely above a whisper, but I could still see Vasili watching us, out of the corner of his eye. His look was a perplexed one, as though he didn't exactly know what we were saying and desperate to find out. I nodded my head, a simple gesture that felt very commanding for me. I stepped in front of her, my stare looking straight ahead and not even turning slightly to see if Vasili was watching me, trying to decode the meaning of my walk, or the confidentiality behind the slight conversation. I walked tall and straight into the adjoining room that acted as a changing area, and through the tall mirror in front of me I could see Vasili's expression stop and study me. His gazes traveling up and down my body as if anticipating my naked flesh in plain sight in just a matter of minutes. Without my asking, Sasha shut the door after she entered the room, creating a barer between Vasili and I, which was greatly appreciated.

I took a seat calmly in front of the mirror. My reflection was strange and mysterious as I looked at it. "Sasha?" I questioned, my voice barely above a whisper so Vasili could not hear. "Is their nothing that the Disa and Dio can do for Zane?"

Sasha licked her lips, as if the dryness were too much for her to handle. "They tried Milady. The Dio begged for the Arami Zane's release, he even tried to bribe one of Adelina's guards. But this is a matter between Serpiente blood, and not Mistari nor Avain can get involved." Sasha paused. "It is the same in your situation, Milady. This is a situation between Avains, and Vasili is your rightful Alistar. It was decreed long before you came to know Zane."

"But he was dead!" I argued, my voice rising, like smoke in a boiling pot. "I had no idea that he was alive, or living in that horrible place."

"I know," she reassured me, "but according to your law Vasili is your Alistar for life, and if he had left for whatever reason and then come back he still would be your Alistar."

Silence. I was boxed in at every turn and I saw no escape for Zane and I now. Sasha was silent as well. She curled her fingers against my hair, pulling undone the weaves of braids and buns that she had been placed there this morning. Soon my golden main was flowing again, framing my face gently as though I were an ancient painting of sadness.

"What do you think Adelina will do to Zane?" I asked, afraid of her answer but desperate for any information that she could give me.

"Adelina is vengeful; she will not take Arami Zane as her paramour or companion. I fear that she will take him to the same hell that he took her. That she will not be satisfied until he had suffered the same as she. First with losing the one that he loves, and then losing his sanity."

Her words pierced every section of my body. I had to help him; I had to stop all of this. Tonight! I decided, tonight I would escape from all of this. Tonight I would find Zane.

Before long Sasha was finished with my hair, and had taken away the many layers of flowing fabric that made up my dress. After the dress was free of me she dressed me in a long white nightgown. The material thick and warm, hugging my skin lightly as it formed to my curves.

I reopened the doors to the changing room and took a step outside. Vasili stood at the edge of the bed, his long cloak placed against the back of a tall chair that stood in the corner of the room. Long brown pants hung from his legs like leaves off of a great tree and as I approached the bed he pulled the last button lose from his white linen shirt and withdrew it from his breast. His chest was exposed to me, showing muscles that were bolder and thicker then I remembered from when we were children, and scares that I wished never to know the stories to.

Without a word I climbed into the bed, knowing that Vasili expected me to sleep here with him, and that if I did not he would surly follow me to where ever it was that I chose to sleep. I bit my lip and turned onto my side, facing away from him, trying to give the impression that I did not want to be touched. Moments later I felt Vasili's hard body slide into bed, the mattress dropping from one side to the other under his weight and I felt every one of his uncomfortable shifts as if they were my own. I felt him lean back up and I heard the puff of his cheeks and the exhale of breath that extinguished the lit candle on his side of the room.

The room went dark, and for a moment I thought that Vasili would come to me, reach his hand out to me as if we had been lover's years ago and were now rekindling the flame. I feared his touch, frightful of the difference between his and Zane's. But nothing happened, and before long I heard the calm and even breath of deep sleep. I wondered if this was my chance, if I dared truly slip away from him now, I wondered if he truly slept or had anticipated my desire to escape and was only waiting to catch me in the act. I dared not breathe as I pulled the covers back. 


	12. Chapter 12

Title: Snake Singer

Authors Notes: Thank you so much to TallemeraRane who helped with the editing of this chapter. 

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

I dared not breathe as I pulled the covers back, my fingers clutching to the threads of the thick blanket that covered me. Vasili, from what I could tell, continued to sleep soundly, and as far as I saw he was not aware that I had moved. When I was out of the bed I crouched down, my eyes barely over the side of the mattress. I watched, and I waited. I studied Vasili's every breath, every slight movement, hoping to uncover any sign that he knew what I was doing. After several minutes of this I lowered myself, crawling on hands and feet toward the door.

Meekly I turned the doorknob, barely breathing as it turned. Before I opened the door I quickly looked back to Vasili, but he remained unmoved, unshaken, as if he truly still trusted that I wouldn't leave. Without another thought I crawled into the hallway.

The hallway was cold; a chilling draft passed through my skin and iced my bones. Once I was far enough away from the door I lifted myself up from the floor, my legs stiff. As soon as I was standing I waited, pushing my back against the wall as hard as I could, attempting to blend into the dark shadows of the night. My eyes narrowed, my senses outstretched. I listened and saw everything that went on around me. But I saw nothing, and after taking one long, deep breath I ran. My feet hit the floor lightly as I flew across the hallways. Without thinking my path became familiar, I don't know how, but I was going to the garden that Zane had taken me to. I remembered every twist and turn, and every narrow corridor until I got to the door.

Once the old, and creaky wooden door was before me I stopped. My chest rising and falling so violently that I begged myself to fall to the ground, to rest and catch my breath. Part of me was afraid to go through the door, unaware if I was ready or strong enough to do everything that I needed to do to save Zane and myself. But then the image of Zane in that horrible place, beaten and starved, , became lodged in my head. He looked more like the skeletal remains of the man that I love, not my husband. The image was so powerful that without my realizing it my hands rose up from my sides and pushed the door open with all of my strength.

There I stood, half way out in the night and halfway inside the Mistari palace. My bare toes could feel the cool night air and the light shower of tiny raindrops as they hit and then dripped off of my skin. The hem of my nightgown curled above the tall strands of green grass as it danced with the pattern of the wind's movements.

I took a deep breath, knowing that the only way that I would ever be free again would be to take this step. To leave all that I had known all my life behind, including Vasili, with his thoughts of marriage and a stable life with no war amongst our people. Once, long ago, that had been my dream, to live my life with Vasili and bring peace to both sides of this bloody conflict. But so much had changed, and I had changed with them. That idea was not mine anymore, and I realized in that moment that the only people who could end these wars and stop all of the hatred were the people who fought them, and the people who spent their lives hating. It was the people who reared their children up, hawk and snake alike to hate the other that fueled the fires of death, and it was only these people who could end it. For so long I had thought that I alone could save everyone and everything from all things evil and destructible, but I alone cannot do this, I alone do not have the strength to change all of this. Until my people, and all people can learn to live without the idea of destruction against someone or something else, then war will never end.

I took the final step out of the door, I was free from that place, and in the harmony and tranquility of the old garden. I closed my eyes and made peace with my destiny. I burrowed my human self deep within the inner core of my body and began to feel my form change. I knew that the only way to leave these lands safely was to transform into my Hawk counterpart and fly from these walls. I opened my eyes to see that my body was beginning to change. The light, pale hue of my skin was now morphing into a golden sheen, and the smoothness of my flesh was tarnished, and rough to the touch until it became the uneven scale of feathers. I closed my eyes again and let the transformation take over me. I could feel my body shake and shrink until my human shell was almost the shell of a hawk...

Suddenly I felt the change stop, I was disoriented, nothing like this had ever happened to me before. I tried to open my eyes but they were half way through the changing process, not entirely human eyes and not entirely hawk eyes. I could move nothing that was connected to me, not hands or feet. I couldn't see and I could barley hear. I began to change back immediately, pushing with all of my might for the human part of me to come back to the surface. It took a few moments but before long I could feel my true form again, and I began to feel what was happening to me.

I felt strong hands around my neck, fingers clamping down against skin and bone so hard that it was choking me. Finely I opened my eyes and I could see the blurred outline of Vasili standing over me. I tried to force him off but my full strength had not yet returned and I was left defenseless against him.

Vasili clamped down harder against my neck and before long my eyes closed...

When my eyes opened again I was back in our room, a host of candles lined every tabletop and some were even scattered on the floor. The flames were maddening through my blurred vision. I tried to move but like before I felt something around my neck. It was not fingers but tight, cold metal. I reached my hand up and realized that it was a thick bar placed all the way around my neck and tethered on a chain against the wall. The chain was short and would probably only allow me a few feet moving room. I sighed, angry and frustrated at the situation.

"Well, my sneaky little bird has finally decided to grace us with her loving presence!" I heard, recognizing Vasili's voice long before he had finished.

"What is this?" I demanded my voice flat and even; I wanted to give no emotion to him.

"I didn't want it to come to this Danica," he said, approaching me, his bare chest glistening with a thin layer of sweat as he made his way through candlelit shadows. Once he was near to me he knelt down and stroked my cheek with his hand. I wanted to turn away, to get as far away from him as possible, but at the same time I didn't want to anger him. "Why did you do that?" He asked, his voice almost childlike, in that he truly didn't understand why I would want to leave. "For him!" He continued, his voice getting colder and crueler. "To find him. That monster, does he truly control you that much, that he can reach his hand from so far away and drag you to hell with him?"

"I would go to hell, if it meant that I could be with him," I said, my voice still even and emotionless.

I could see Vasili's lips tighten, and his face quiver slightly as if he were about to strike me, and I welcomed the violence. Any hit against me would only make me hate him all the more, and give more of a reason and more strength to escape him.

Vasili did nothing. He stood up again and slowly walked about the room, making sure that my eyes were on him every second. With his fingers he extinguished each and every flame on every candle that he had lit, going around the room in a circle until he reached the last one. The last candle was on the table closest to the bed, and before snuffing it out he looked at me. His eyes low and cruel, and with a whisper, his voice as deadly and even as mine had been he said: "Goodnight Danica!" And the room went into darkness.


	13. Chapter 13

Title: Snake Singer

Authors Notes: Thank you so much to TallemeraRane who helped with the editing of this chapter. 

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

I stayed awake all night. The chain around my neck held me so tightly that when I turned my head I found that I couldn't breath. I knew that even if I tried, sleep would never come to me on this night. My body ached from the change that was forcefully terminated earlier. My muscles felt unformed, as though all of my limbs had been cut off and then sown back on, and my blood was just now starting to reconnect and give feeling again to the rest of me. My skin glowed slightly; an amber hue flowed in my veins and came through my flesh like tiny candles shining from within me.

The palace was silent for hours; the only sound audible was Vasili's even breathing. The continued rise and fall of his chest drove me mad, and I saw nothing but images of myself puncturing his naked chest with the sharp end of a knife.

Daybreak came slowly, and from my position against the wall I could see through the corner of the window as the sun rose high above the treetops that bordered the Mistari Kingdom. I wondered where Zane was as I watched the sky change from a light blue into deep the purples and reds of morning. What was he doing? Sleeping on the cold ground somewhere soaked through with the rain that had fallen for most of the night? Or awake like me, chained and imprisoned by forces that kept us apart?

I laid my head against the wall straight, trying to find relief against my stiff neck. The sound of the busy birds awakening in the trees beyond the window and in the gardens below began to drown out Vasili's constant breathing and in my desperation to find a moments peace I was glad of it.

My peace was interrupted; I watched through the corner of my eye as Vasili stirred for the first time since he had fallen asleep. He lifted his long muscular arms up and stretched them high, sliding bone against skin. Without hesitation he stood up from the bed, he walked in a straight line and was untarnished by the hours of sleep and lack of use that the night had given him. I watched as he reached for his clothes that still hung from the edge of a high back chair in the corner of the room. With his extended hand he pulled his white shirt, long black pants, and the long dark cloak from the side and laid them neatly on the bed before him. I watched through half open eyes as he pulled the lose fitting pants that he had slept in from his body, lowering them down his legs and exposing his completely naked body in front of me.

I closed my eyes completely, a slight blush coming to my face, and I turned away, even though I could hardly breath; I didn't even want to face him even if my eyes were closed. I listened to the sound of material sliding together as he dressed himself, my eyes still closed; I couldn't bare to look at him. "Don't tell me your blushing Danica?" I heard him say, almost mockingly. However, I didn't open my eyes, and I didn't respond.

I heard him start to walk away, and I thought that he would go into the other room so that he could finish dressing, however when I opened my eyes I almost jumped when I saw that he was standing directly over me. "I would hope that we would not have to have another confrontation like last night when we get home." He said, kneeling down and reaching his hand around my neck, I hoped that he would release me from the metal caller around my neck. He did, and for the first time in hours I could breath normally. Vasili sighed, then reached his hand out for me to take, but I chose not to. I glared at him and stood up of my own free will, his body following me quickly after. "I don't want to hurt you Danica," he reassured me, "but I will do what is necessary to keep you away from that monster. I know that one day, perhaps a long time away from now you will thank me for that." I didn't respond, but I wanted to scream at him, I wanted to do something, hurt him like he had hurt me. He took hold of both of my hands, as though he were about to propose. Lifting both of them out toward him he examined my skin, no doubt noticing the golden lines that flashed across my skin like tiny rivers from the stopped change last night. "Be careful, Danica, its not healthy to stop half way through a change. It can have a permanent effect on you."

My face stiffened, "I wouldn't have stopped," I began, "if you had not strangled me so forcefully and not let the change be completed."

A half smile crookedly formed across his lower lip. "Get dressed!" he demanded, releasing my arms from his firm touch. "We leave for the Hawks keep in less then an hour; I won't let our people see their Queen in such a state!"

I dressed quietly in the adjoining room; giving Vasili a deadly look as I closed the doors. I hoped that my fierce glare would warn him not to enter until I came out.

It was early, and I had no desire to wake Sasha or any of the other servents at this hour. I didn't want to look my best, so I decided to dress myself. I searched the closet full of dresses and gowns that the Disa had given to me until I found one that fit my mood. Black and slenderest, tight in the torso but lose everywhere else. The dress was made of the finest velvet and warmed me when I put it on. The outfit hung from my body perfectly, fitting my form and flowing just long enough that my bare feet did not show. My hair was a mess, but I wanted nothing fancy. I brushed it thoroughly until it shined, but then left it that way. I didn't care what Vasili thought; Zane always said that I looked more beautiful in a simple style. _"You're more yourself that way." _He would say, I head his voice clearly in my head and it brought a smile to my face.

After Vasili and I were both dressed and ready he led me out of the room. I didn't look back, but I desperately wanted to. I wanted to remember the entire night that Zane and I had spent in there; it helped when thinking of the night afterward when I was a prisoner in it. Vasili was dressed fine and his face was firm and sculptured, so much like I remembered it years ago yet the man underneath that face couldn't have been more different. I saw Vasili look me over several times, and I knew that he was unpleased and disappointed that I was not as done up and perfect as I could have been, but I was satisfied. I knew that he recognized the uncaring vibe that I was giving off.

Vasili refused to let me say goodbye to the Disa and Dio, and to thank them both for what they had done for Zane and I. I watched as they stood against one of the lower windows as if in support for me, and I instructed Sasha, who was one of our guards to the Mistari boarders, to tell them how appreciative I was, and to reassure them that I would find a way to get Zane back, even if it meant selling my soul to Vasili to get him released and to never truly be with him again.

The road through the Mistari lands was long and mostly through dense forests. The Disa and Dio had been kind enough to loan us four horses to make our journey on, since Vasili refused to let me transform again, fearing that I would escape while in my Hawk's shape. At the end of the road I watched as Sasha and the other friends I had made here looked on from behind. On the road back to the Hawks Keep it was just Vasili, the tree guards that he had brought with him, and myself.

The road through what was left of the Mistari lands and into Avian land was mostly quiet, and we saw very little people traveling. I assumed that all of the wounded and unharmed citizens from the battle at Haente had already fled to their old home lands, whether it be Avain or Serpiente they no doubt began their quest to destroy the other culture again, and like before were teaching their children the best ways to kill the other. The feeling made me sick, and the fact that I was now helping it by going with Vasili sent ice through my still glowing veins.

We reached the Hawks Keep by nightfall. I could see the candles lit high in every window shining from yards away. Tiny shimmers and glows off in the distance like an army of fireflies coming to save me and take me away from all of this pain that surrounded me. I realized soon after though that no army could save me now – it was up to me to find a way out of this mess.

Vasili had been silent most of the time as we made our way through the long journey of forests and deserted roads, but as we came nearer and nearer to the Hawks Keep he turned to me, his voice low, and meant just for me as he said: "This is our home Danica – it always has been and it always will be our home. One day that devil will be free from your soul and one day everything will be as we imagined it." His words were so much like Zane's that I found myself reeling. His words, and the way that he said them reminded me only of Zane and I agonized over it. Did I want this? Deep down, inside my soul did I still harbor the belief that Vasili and I could still be together? For so long after his 'death' that was all that I had wished for. To have him near me again, my entire childhood was spent looking up to him, and imagining our future life together. After everything that has happened could he truly still love me? And could I still love him?

Vasili received a warm welcome as we passed through the gates and were met by the many citizens out in the market place tending to their daily chores. Most of them remembered Vasili from his heroic war achievements and his help in diplomatic situations that my mother faced after my father was murdered. Most of them once valued him as an ally and a friend. I remember the Vasili of that time, who like me would go for endless strolls through the market place, getting to know the cares and concerns of his future people. Many Avian's appreciated that, considering that by the end of my father's life he was to immersed in the affairs of war to go out and walk amongst his people anymore.

The gathering public cheered, and shouted old prayers that their beloved Vasili had returned to them. I bowed my head, receiving no cheers or praise from them.

It had been so long since I had been in the Hawk's Keep that I barely recognized it. It had changed so much in so little time. Vasili, however, found his way around immediately, as though he had spent everyday of his life here and could navigate every corridor, and hallway with ease. Without saying a word, though I knew that a huge grin hung across his face, he lead me into the throne room, which now, after seeing the Mistari thrones close up, looked very simple and plain to my eyes. It was a small room, not even half the size of the one at the Mistari palace. The floor was made of wood paneling, and looked nothing close to the solid gold that made up the floor that the Disa and Dio looked on to, and the high chairs were nothing more then small wooden chairs, painted with a dark mahogany-like glaze and placed up against one of the far walls. Vasili immediately went to one of the chairs and sat down. From the look on his face I could tell that he enjoyed the view and the feeling that he got from it. It made me feel unwell, remembering the many times that my father, and Zane had sat and ruled in that chair.

"Danica!" I heard a frightful voice call as I entered the room slowly. I turned on my heels immediately, recognizing the voice instantly, it was Irene. When I turned I could see her as she ran to me, hair a mess, and her dress, the same that she had been in when last I saw her in the caves was torn and blood soaked, as though she had been in a gruesome fight to the death and received several scars. I gasped when I saw what was in her arms. An infant child wrapped in rags was clutched between her arms in a loving embrace, and her husband was steadfastly at her side, with my mother, the Lady Nicola Shardea behind them.

"What is this?" I asked, my voice low and my eyebrows furrowed. I turned to Vasili, almost daring him to answer me. "What is this?" I commanded, my voice taking on the characteristics of the Queen that he so longed to see.

Vasili lifted one of his eyebrows, a gesture that gave off the impression that he cared nothing for Zane's family, and my friends, or what could happen to them here. His disinterest in them caused me to watch my step with what I said to him. "Adalina and I found them while on the way to their new hiding place. That one," he said, pointing at Irene, "gave birth five days ago. Another snake brat to go with the rest." I bit my tongue, but like always I would have preferred screaming at him.

"Are you all right?" I asked Irene, looking away from Vasili, and not caring that he disapproved of my connection to them. "Have you seen a doctor?"

"No!" Irene said bluntly, not concealing her anger or her hatred for Vasili. "Fortunately my son and I are doing fine."

I smiled: "It's a boy?"

"Yes," she reassured me repositioning her arms so that I could get a better look at the infant. "We've decided to name him Zane."

Her confession brought tears to my eyes, and again the image of Zane starved and on the brink of death entered my mind like a harsh and inescapable truth. I looked away from Irene, and back toward Vasili, who still sat on his stool completely detached from everyone else; within the inner workings of his own little world. "What will you do with them?" I asked, my voice calm and beseeching, knowing what he was capable of and hoping that he would take pity on them, if for my sake only.

"Take them away to begin with," he said sarcastically, but with the wave of his hand two of the guards began to approach them.

I turned back to Irene: "Don't worry," I said. "Go with them now. I won't let them hurt you, or your child." Irene and her husband were led away side by side and my mother turned as if about to follow them but Vasili's command to bring herself to a standstill stopped her.

"Lady Nicola you are not a prisoner here, I am sorry that you had to spend so much time with those rash barbarians. Had I known of the conditions that you were subjected to I never would have let it continue. Now, of course, you are free to go back to your room and change into something more comfortable and cleaner if you wish." I watched as Vasili looked my mother over, and curiously I did as well. From the sleeves of her shirt to the front of her bodice she was covered in the deep red of dried blood. I assumed that it was she who delivered Irene's child. Vasili's guards were more then likely under strict orders to not interfere, and if it came to it, leave any snake to die before helping them.

My mother nodded her head and after giving me a quick sympathetic gaze left the room. Though she had been kept a prisoner for several days she showed no sign of it and walked exactly as she did when she herself was the Tuuli Thea of these lands, with her head high and back straight. I waited until she was out of the room until I spoke: "What do you intend to do with them?"

"Who? Your mother? I plan to let her life in comfort and peace with us."

"No," I protested, "Irene, her husband and the baby. What's to happen to them?"

"Well, that depends on you Danica. What do you think is fitting punishment for the sister of our mortal enemy?"

"Please Vasili," I begged as he began to rise from the chair that he found all too much comfort in, and began to approach me.

"I'll do anything!" I confessed not caring what he demanded of me. I truly valued Irene and any of Zane's family as my friends and I was not willing to sit by and watch them suffer and die just so Vasili could prove a point to me.

"Anything," he professed, his voice and body language taunting me as he came so close that I could feel his hot breath against my face.

"Anything." I echoed.


	14. Chapter 14

Title: Snake Singer

Authors Notes: Thank you so much to TallemeraRane who helped with the editing of this chapter.

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

I could tell by the look in his eyes that he already knew what he was going to demand of me – his eyes gleaming in a delightful dance of possibilities. "Danica, my love," he said, approaching me and stroking my cheek with his strong hand, his fingers tracing lines across my face as though I were a canvas to which he painted. "I will release Zane's family, and let them leave here and go wherever they chose with me never bothering them again. But under one condition."

My skin seemed to tighten around my bones and the small hairs on my arm curled up as I said: "I will do whatever you ask of me."

"Very well then" he reassured me. "You will never leave this place without me again, becoming my Tuuli Thea, and ruling here with me as it once should have been. And if you should leave me, if you should go back to that monster, I will make sure that that baby and all of Zane's line are murdered." His voice grew louder, "You know I can do it, you know that I will never stop looking for you if you should leave. I will always haunt you and Zane, always one step behind you. I would follow you to the ends of the earth and to my dieing day if necessary... Is it a deal?"

It sounded more like several conditions, all slightly more excruciating then the last one. "You will leave them alone forever?" I breathed, my voice barely audible over my deep anguish.

"Forever!"

I bit my lip, death to Zane's family, my friends, or a lifetime with Vasili. I swallowed hard, hoping that this entire world would fade suddenly into the bottomless curves of a nightmare that was in no way real. "I agree!" I added, forsaking the rest of my life into the hands of a madman.

"Marvelous!" he yelled, his voice giddy and childish. I was dieing on the inside, and he was ecstatic. "We shall have the commencement ceremony tomorrow. The whole world shall know that the Avian royalty once again rule over this land with authority, and no longer will there be a snake monster on the throne." His voice became more like himself again, dark and thoughtful as if he knew so much more then anyone else. He removed his hand from my features, a movement that flushed my face slightly as he trailed his hand down my body. Lowering from my neck and moving past my breasts and then pulling me close by circling his arm around my waist. I jumped, afraid and confused; he had never behaved so aggressively toward me, not even years ago when I knew him. He looked taken aback by my distance, but then soon his face changed to understanding. "One day Danica, you will embrace me, you will see that I am saving you," he paused. "One day," he reassured me. "Now, why don't you go up to your room and prepare for bed?"

I stood with my mouth slightly open. Did he expect to bed me on this night?


	15. Chapter 15

Title: Snake Singer

Authors Notes: Thank you so much to TallemeraRane who helped with the editing of this chapter. 

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

My room was much the same way that I remembered it. The same deep satin blanket hung over the bed making the lightwood of the bed frame sparkle. The same cedar chest rested near by, and lying against it was the same soft pillow that my father had given me as a child so many years ago with tiny red dragons embroidered against the material.

I stopped myself from lighting a candle; the room looked more natural and seemed more appealing to me in the darkness. I couldn't seem to look at it; the room itself was so strange and foreign from the life that I now led that it didn't seem real. It was all a strange fantasy that a little girl would have, dreaming that they could be the daughter of the Tuuli Thea and live in such a way. I shrank from it, just as I had shrunk form Vasili's embrace. _What had I done? _I continually asked myself. I had given up all of my free will; everything that I valued in my personality had just been locked away in the cedar chest at the foot of my old bed and Vasili alone kept the keys.

I hovered in the doorway, unable to take another step in and unable to take a step back. I swallowed hard, trying to sort everything out in my head but all that I could see were Vasili and Zane. _What would Zane think of all of this? Would he approve because I'm doing it to save his family? Is he even alive now? _A lone tear fell from my eye, and I hadn't realized that I was crying until I felt the bead of pain slide down my cheek and tumble from my face to the floor. And Vasili, even though I wanted him dead and would jump at the opportunity to do such an act, I did not hate him. I still saw the same boy that I had grown up with, he was kind and strong, and would never hurt anything, let alone me. I loved him once as I love Zane now. Would those feelings return in time? Could they? Or would I forever value the man that I once knew and turn my back on the horrendous deeds of the man now? I sighed, my now flowing tears caused my lips to form and I wanted to scream out but...

Someone grabbed me, forceful dark hands from the shadows clutching tightly at my mouth, but lose enough that I could breath. "Don't say a word!" I heard, the voice lower then a whisper and spoken so fast that I couldn't tell if the voice were male or female. I felt hot breath against my ear lobe as I nodded my head, acknowledging that I would obey the stranger's orders. I felt his warm hands release me from the tight grip and quickly after he spun me around on my heels to face him. I let out a slight whimper as I saw who it was that was facing me. "Rei!" I whispered my voice so joyful that I had to embrace him. I thought back in my memory and realized that I had not seen Rei sense Zane and I had reached the Mistari Palace, and I had not thought of him at all since then. "What happened to you, where have you been?" I asked immediately.

He took hold of my arm and led me into the room, gesturing for me to sit down on the bed. "When Adalina took Zane away I followed her." My hopes immediately sprang up and my voice caught in my throat; he knew that I would die if he did not give me the information. "I followed them through the Mistari borders and on to Serpiente lands. At first Adalina took him into the Keep, treated him well, as if he would relent his feelings for you and rule with her." Rei stopped and I was left breathless.

"Then what?"

"He didn't relent; he even went as far enough to say that she could have the thrown, that it no longer mattered and he would chose death over rulings with her." Rei took a breath, a long breath, agony to me. "Adalina was so infuriated that she led him away that night to the Underground Municipality."

"And then?"

"That's all that I could see, there is no safe way of breaking into the Underground Municipality and then getting back out; there would be chaos and the most vial prisoners would be once again in the world."

I knew that Rei was right, but I couldn't stand the thought of Zane being alone in that place, and on the surface of this problem their was no way of saving him without disrupting the flow of order that cursed place had. I knew the risk of releasing those prisoners in the world and it would be chaos. I bit my lip, I didn't mean to, but I bit it so hard that it drew blood. I could taste the sour liquid between my lips and I quickly opened my mouth to speak: "Is their nothing that we can do?"

Rei looked at me, deep within my eyes as though he was trying to measure the degree of my pain. "For now, there is nothing more to do then wait. I will find a way Danica, I promise." Rei got up, leaving me crookedly placed on the bed and alone with my thoughts. I could tell by the sound of his movements that he was by the window. I turned, wondering why he stood so close and my curiosity was further peaked when he pulled aside the thin white curtain and looked out, his eyebrows furrowing with the intensity of his gaze.

"What is it?"

He turned back to me. "Don't try to escape tonight, promise me."

"Why?" I asked standing up and approaching him until I stood behind him and I too was watching through the glass.

"Look," he said, pointing his finger toward the tree that grew several feet away from my balcony. I saw nothing, but I continued to watch, hoping to see something.

I continued to watch through the window, but still I saw nothing. My gaze passing from branch to branch of the tree but still nothing was revealed to me. I looked back, toward Rei, my eyes questioning. "Look again!" he said to me and once more I studied the atmosphere outside until I began to see movement within the long hanging leaves of the tree. I invoked my hawk's perfect vision as I narrowed in on the movement and saw that concealed on a perched branch sat a tall and lean crow, its eyes tapering on the balcony beneath the window but not on Rei and I. "That is why!" He reassured me; knowing that I had seen what I was meant to.

"No doubt Vasili had guards watching me from every corner of this place!"

"It is a burden," he pressed through an understanding tone, "but you must abide your time." Rei hesitated, his body erect and alert as though he had heard a crack in the floor from down the hall. He watched the door, which he had closed when he came in. He looked as though he expected it to open at any moment. I looked toward the door also, but like before I could not see what he was seeing. "I should go," he said finally, his eyes wide and tightly clasped to the doorknob.

"What do you hear?" I asked, knowing that his senses were far more attuned then mine.

"He is coming!"

Rei disappeared soon after, vanishing as quick and as easily as he had appeared to me. I found myself alone in the room again, only this time it didn't seem so frightening to me. I found my way around perfectly in the darkness and it made no difference as I lit a few candles around the room.

I undressed quickly; glad to be free of the black velvet gown that over the course of the day had become tight and uncomfortable. I took Rei's word for it and I knew indeed that Vasili was coming so I wasted no time as I prepared, not wanting Vasili to come in and see me undressing myself. My gaze passed several times to the window and the guard that Vasili had placed there. I had closed the curtain for privacy but he was still out there, watching me, anticipating my escape and ready to prevent me if I tried. I swallowed hard; I was a prisoner in my own home.

Once my old nightgown was fastened and buttoned on completely, I blew out the remaining candles with the exception of one that sat on the table by the other side of the bed. I didn't know if Vasili would come to me again like last night, or expect any duties that he wished for me to perform. I crawled into bed and across from the side where the lit candle was. I pulled the covers over me completely, not wanting any kind of exposure of my skin, afraid that it would cause reaction from Vasili.

Soon after I had gotten under the covers I heard the doorknob turn and the old floorboards crack as someone approached me. I knew that without a doubt it was Vasili and I pretended to be asleep. However, I knew that he knew that I was truly awake, and when he spoke to me I was reassured of it: "Get your rest Danica," he said to me. "Tomorrow at our commencement ceremony that snake monster will be gone from you forever."

_Forever..._


	16. Chapter 16

Title: Snake Singer

Authors Notes: Thank you so much to TallemeraRane who helped with the editing of this chapter. 

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

I slept well that night. I dreamt that Zane and I were together again at the Haente Palace like those first few months when we first arrived and before the fighting had begun. When I awoke from the dream I felt lonely and a great sense of longing filled my heart like a shadow of dark and unimaginable doom. The tortures and torments that he must have been going through were so much more important then mine, and the only leverage I saw against Vasili was by going through with the commencement ceremony tonight.

When I awoke, Vasili was already gone, his side of the bed made and the bed sheets so smooth and unwrinkled that it looked as though it had not even been slept in. I stared at it with unflinching eyes as though it were a piece of ancient art that had become sacred to me. _Why did he do the things that he did? And why in such a way?_

I continued to look to his side of the bed for a long time, laying still as I felt the sun rise and come through my window sending bullets of sunlight through the window like a natural gun and warming my back. It felt like hours had passed before I convinced myself to rise, the sounds of the birds calling from outside was like a lullaby to me. I felt myself calling out to the sun as though I to were in my bird's form. I swallowed deeply; the will to rise escaped me.

Finally with a heavy sigh I got up. My gaze immediately fixed on the high sun and the beautiful day that was unfolding outside my window. I walked to the glass; grabbing an old woolen shawl from the wardrobe and wrapping it about my shoulders. I held it tightly around myself as I opened the balcony doors and took a step out. I could feel the cool, crisp morning air, it stung my face like tiny knives but I didn't mind. The golden light shown on my skin and the world was bathed in Dawn's shadows. _It will be a magnificent day_, I thought. I could see in my head the vision of what tonight's ceremony would be. I imagined it much the same way that Zane's ceremony as my Arami and pair bond had been, only the emotions would be different. Zane's people loved the sense of touch, weather it was an arm around my waist or the slightest brush of his lips against mine, and he was always close to me. With Vasili I knew that it would be quiet different. He would keep his distance even though I knew that he had intense feelings for me. It was the way of our people to be distant and reserved toward another, even if they were to marry, and physical contact was frowned upon.

I knew that tonight would be uncomfortable for me, having become so used to Zane and the Serpiente ways.

I only stood out on the balcony for a short time before coming back in. Whether I was inside or out, I was alone, and I begged to find some kind of company that would be civilized and kind to me.

I searched through my closet; desiring comfort above conformity, I could always dress for the ceremony later on in the evening. Quickly I pulled on a pair of olive-green pants and a white button down shirt with a long brown vest over it. Then I pulled up my long boots over my legs and as I brushed my hands through my hair trying to pull it into some kind of hairdo that would keep it away from my face. As I fiddled with my hair I heard a knock at the door.

I let my hair fall back over my face as I approached the door. A slight tint of fear seeped into my heart as I turned the doorknob. A young Avian servant stood at the other end. I lifted my eyes to her presence, wondering what it was that she wanted. "Forgive me Milady, but Master Vasili bid me give you this!" The girl held out an envelope sealed letter and I took it without an upward glance, shutting the door in front of her.

It was rude yes, but my hands were trembling. _Why would Vasili write me a letter? Had he decided to leave – had he noticed that I was unhappy and would never be happy again until I was with Zane once more? Maybe…_

Maybe...

My fingers were still twitching as I peeled back the thick paper envelope revealing the calligraphic words underneath:

****

Danica,

Pressing matters in the countryside have called me away but I will be back in time for the ceremony tonight. I have freed the Cobriana prisoners as you have desired and they are now on their way back to their homeland.

Yours,

Vasili

The letter itself was beautiful, the writing smooth and delicate as any skilled monk's handwriting would be. So skilled in fact that I had I not known I never would have believed that he had spent so many years in the Underground Municipality. I sighed; at least Zane's family was free and safe again. At least Irene could have and enjoy a safe and happy life with her husband and the remaining family that she had left, even if I myself would never receive such a fate.

I put the letter down on the desk and without a sound I raised my hands and began to form my hair once more. My mind was reeling. _Where is it that Vasili had gone? What in the country could have been so important that he had to go there immediately?_ I had no idea, but as I thought I shifted my hands and pulled my hair out of my face.

The rest of my day was calm; I spent the remainder of my afternoon with my mother. We ate a small lunch in her room and talked about the events of the last few days. She detailed her capture and her part in Irene's delivery as well as the first few days in young Zane's life and I told her about all that had happened with Vasili and Zane, as well as the goings on that lead to our arrival to the Keep.

Our conversation and meeting ended toward the end of the day, but still Vasili had not returned. The sun was still high and shinning but long shadows hung over most of the land from natural and man mad objects, just as the shadows had hung in the morning. I paced the halls of the Keep slowly, my feet light against the wood paneling so I would not disturb anyone or cause attention to myself.

After I had walked through most of the keep I came to the royal balcony that had no stairs up or down from it. It was a safety measure, so no other shapshifters besides Avians could get to the Royal family. I looked around me as I stood at the edge of the great parapet, checking to make sure that no one, especially Vasili, was watching me. I remembered the events from the night before when I tried to change and I could vividly remember the pain that flowed through my veins when he tried to stop me.

I changed quickly, much faster then the night before. My body taking on my golden hawks shape with grace and ease. Like a human I raised my wings up and my body lifted with its newfound lightness. My bones cracking slightly in beautiful relief as I felt the change effect my movements. I flew over the side of the parapet swiftly and was almost completely changed back to my former shape by the time my feet reached the ground below. The change so rapid that I could barely feel the effect of coming back to my human shape, which usually took a moment to sink back into my skin.

Without truly realizing it my feet lead me out of the keep and through the narrow gates into the training arena. Several guards and soldiers were scattered from corner to corner of the open courtyard and each bowed slightly when I entered. I hated that, but I bowed my head slightly in compliance and went on my way. I wanted to find Rei, I wanted to talk to him, ask him more about Zane, and what he had seen at the Serpiente Keep. I searched the stables, and the remaining training grounds but I found no sign of him. Not even a whisper.

"Excuse me?" I beckoned to a passing soldier, his brow dripping with sweat and his expression soft and playful as though he had been playing with a few of his friends in some kind of deadly combat fight.

The soldier looked up and bowed when he realized whom it was who was bargaining for his attention: "Yes Milady Danica?"

"Have you seen commander Andreios anywhere?"

"Yes, Milady," he answered me. "I believe that he went with Master Vasili to the countryside this morning."

I nodded my head, "thank you," but the soldier had already begun to walk away.

I was alone again, and I made my way back up to the Keep.

Once I was in my room again I felt famished and weary over the events that would occupy my night. I searched through everything in the wardrobe that would be appropriate to wear to the ceremony tonight but I found nothing that I would be willing to wear. Everything was either too childish or too revealing, and neither was a point that I was willing to press tonight. I walked through my room once more, form corner to corner as I watched the sun go down. _What will I do tonight? _A dark thought of leaping from the balcony and finding my death on the green earth outside jumped into my mind but I quickly let it go. I couldn't die without knowing that Zane would be all right! I dropped to the bed, my body soaking into the curves of the mattress as it formed to me. As I sat, day dreaming and dreading I heard a knock at the door. _Rei! _I said to myself, hoping that someone had told him that I was looking for him and he had come to me to find out what was wrong. I flew from the bed and headed toward the door. The movement from the bed to the door was so fast that it seemed to morph into one sharp advance and continued to feel like wise when I turned the doorknob.

On the other end of the door stood a young girl, thirteen or fourteen if I was to guess. Her rosy cheeks and stringy brown hair formed to the slender body of a child behind dark eyes and a dark smile. "Yes?" I said, figuring that she was a servant that in the confusion I had not seen or met yet.

The little girl curtsied delicately, as any princess would have to a foreign prince and an innocent smirk crossed her face. "Begg'n your pard'n miss but this has just arrived for you." She bent down and cradled her arms around the center of a long golden box that she pulled up from her feet and carried into my room.

"Do you know who sent it?" I asked as she placed the box, which was easily twice as long as she was in height on my bed and took a step back so that I might have room to examine it.

"No, miss," she answered bluntly.

"Well, did it come with a note or a card?"

"No, miss." Her tone was perfected, practiced, as though she were pretending to give herself away to keep me from the truth.

"Thank you!" I answered turning to the golden box and listening as the little girls heels clicked against the floor as she made her way out and shut the creaky door behind her.

My hands were shaking as I pulled the box closer to me. A thick golden paper wrapped the long box and a set off two green ribbons, which were tied together at either side. I removed the vivaciously large ribbens away from the box and pulled the lid up. I had to lift three layers of thin white paper before the object inside was revealed to me. Folded nicely within the corners of the box was a beautiful green velvet dress with gold trim and lace around the sleeves and belt. In the middle of the box and folded dress, as though meant to symbolize something was a single white lily. Its petals large and full like great rivers so large that they had to spill over their banks. I folded the flower between my fingers and lifted it up to my face to take in the intoxicating aroma of it and it filled me so sweetly that I found myself lost within it.

Picking up the dress from its folded masterpiece, I held it up to myself and turned to the mirror to see what I might look like in it. It was gloriously dazzling and I knew, even though no card came with it that it was a gift from Vasili.

Carefully I pulled the dress over my head and tied the belt loosely, but still tight enough to reveal the curves of my hips and thighs underneath the flowing material. The dress was cut in the same fashion, as the Disa's clothing had been when I wore it at the Mistari Palaces, tight in the waist but flowing at the sleeves and hem. Behind the dress was an extravagant train that flowed several feet behind me in green satin.

I prepared for the ceremony slowly and until the guards came to my door to escort me down I did not really realize that it was happening. _Would I go through with this? Could I? By doing this I was letting go of everything that made me happy in life – whether it was love or peace I couldn't decide. But each was a piece of me and by going through with this I was allowing Vasili to cut these pieces out of me forever and keep them hidden away like he hides the man that he used to be._

"Are you ready Milady?" one of the guards asked from the doorway.

I turned to them, almost ready to answer.


	17. Chapter 17

Title: Snake Singer

Authors Notes: Thank you so much to TallemeraRane who helped with the editing of this chapter. 

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

The Commencement Ceremony played out much the same way as I had imagined it. Vasili kept his distance, though shallowly complemented himself by smiling as I entered the hall and saying, "Excellent choice of clothing for tonight." I smiled a fake little smile in reply.

Vasili then made a speech about how we would distance ourselves from the Serpiente enemies and the corruptive Cobriana's that would seek to destroy us from within by overthrowing our Tulli Thea. I was appalled by his ignorance, but I kept quiet. He was later appointed as my new Arami and pair bond, and Zane was denounced from the Avian thrown as though he had never existed.

I swallowed hard as Vasili lead me through the crowed of on lookers and diplomatist. Through the crowed I saw the familiar face of Naois Knev, a soldier whom in his title and position ranked as high as Rei did in the royal court, and at one time he was a good friend of Vasili.

Naois Knev was a tall man. He was recognized more for his height then his battle strategies and war heroics. While standing, he towered over Vasili by at least a foot and to me he seemed like a giant. He and I had spoken little in the last few years after Vasili's 'death.' In fact, I knew that Naois held Vasili in much the same regard that I held Rei, and I had nothing but respect for that kind of friendship since it silhouetted mine to Rei's so perfectly.

Vasili could have lead us to him without an upward glance and when we came to him he greeted is in much the same way as any royalty would have been greeted. He bowed accordingly, his face tilted in such a way that it shadowed his profile and made him seem ageless. "It is good to see you this way milady, Danica," he said, taking hold of my hand and kissing my knuckles lightly, his glance testing me to see how much he could get away with.

"May I ask what you mean Commander Knev?" I asked, my voice sweet and flirtatious but my eyes dark and deadly as they met his.

"Well," he began his voice creaky as though he was trying to recover his footing on the side of a steep mountain. "It is good to see you following your true destiny and giving your whole heart to your people." He paused as though waiting for me to speak; when I did not he spoke again: "Forgive me if I've caused you any offense." I smiled. What more could I do other then let it go and pretend that his words hadn't hurt me?

"Naois, it is good to see you again!" Vasili interrupted, embracing his old friend tightly, leaving me off to the side to look on. "Tell me," he began once he let Naois go, "what have you been doing all these years that I've been away?" Vasili and Naois soon got lost in their conversation, each eager to discover their old friend again. I stayed near them for a while, before realizing that I played no part in this conversation. I felt like a fool just standing there and pretending to be interested or involved.

I wandered the large room for a while, searching out a friendly face, but everyone crowded around Vasili, all interested in the long dead ghost that had returned, and my betrayal to them all by marrying Zane went so deep that I had become an outcast. I sighed and continued to wander, but in the end I came back to Vasili and his crowed of doting admirers. I was ignored within them, but truly I did not blame them for it; they themselves had been raised and reared in the same way that I had been - born to hate the Serpiente, just as I was, but never learning that they as a people have more similarities to us then differences. And none of them had ever loved one, not in the way that I loved Zane.

"Danica!" I heard someone yell my name from behind me, I turned just in time to see Rei on the other side of the crowed. He waved his hand trying to get my attention and from the look on his face I knew that he had something important to tell me. "Danica!" He said again as he got closer only this time his voice was smaller and less strained. "Danica, there's something that I have to tell you!"

I opened my mouth to ask what but before I could say a word someone from in the crowed screamed, "Get down!" A host of bodies fell to the floor immediately, some crowding around Vasili to protect him and some crowded around me. Rei shielded me from any danger that had been seen, even though I myself had seen nothing. In the flash of a second I felt Rei push me down and as I fell I heard the wisp of an arrow blur past my sight, and I listened to the scream of agony that followed afterward.

When the second had ended, the chaos remained. Mounted madness accorded everywhere before my eyes. The floor was littered with bodies, some were moving, and some were not. Men, woman, of all ranks and age were affected; it seemed for a moment that no one was spared. I searched the room. Rei was already up and tending to a wounded woman who had a half broken arrow protruding from her left shoulder blade, and I watched as a river of blood flowed down from her back to the ground. Just by looking I counted ten people who were not moving on the floor, the apparent damage from the attack visible to me as arrows hung half way through the flesh of their arms, necks, torsos and back.

My eyes stopped and lowered when from across the room I saw Vasili. His arched frame bent and kneeling over the still body of his old friend Naois Knev. A single arrow stood erect from his chest and the circle of torn material around the wound blood soaked and wrinkled. Vasili clutched his hands tightly to Naois chest, as if the pressure that he put upon it would revive the dead man. I could tell by Vasili's blank stare that he, too, had been struck with a wound, though his was nothing physical. I watched as he clutched tighter to his friend, the skin of his hands tainted with the sour liquid of blood.

The hours passed slowly after that. When all of the surrounding lands and the entire Keep searched for our attackers and nothing was found, Rei finally allowed me to go back to my room. I was escorted by a host of guards who were all instructed to watch out for me until told otherwise by Rei himself. Once I was in my room, I couldn't hold still, my muscles ached with fiery pain from stress and my head was throbbing. I couldn't get the image of Vasili out of my head. Never in all of the years of knowing him had I seen his emotions so exposed. Never had he revealed himself in such a way.

How could this have happened? I wondered as I paced across the floor. The two guards staking out the balcony caught my eyes. I was well protected, but still I felt frightened. There was no doubt in my mind that Adelina was behind this attack. The crossbow plunged arrows reeked of her cruel justice and I remember that Zane's mother had been murdered in the same way. Was I the target? Or Vasili? Or the both of us? How had she known that the ceremony was tonight? No doubt her spies were everywhere inside the Keep. But how? And why? How could anyone want this terrible war to continue?

I sat on the bed to try and calm myself and my thoughts strayed to the idea of Adelina's spies all around me. That had to be how this attack was conceived. In my mind I saw the faces of every servant, soldier, and diplomat that I had seen since returning, but the only face that stood out was the face of the little girl who had delivered the green dress to me earlier. Her hair and features were dark, much more like the features of the Serpiente's then the Avian's, and it was not just her looks, I had also noticed that when she spoke to me she seemed like she was hiding something.

My heart stopped, if she was a spy for Adelina, and Vasili had not given me the dress then it came from...

Without another thought I tore the dress off, my clutched fingers easily tarring away the velvet. When the dress was free from me I threw it as hard as I could into the corner of the room. Then, turning I searched the room and found the white Lily that had also been with the dress, it was still on the table where I had left it. I quickly picked it up and destroyed it; silky petals braking easily away from the stem and I dropped what was left of it onto the dress that lied crumpled in the corner.

I moved away and back over to the bed to retrieve my nightgown. Hastily I pulled it over my head, covering my exposed body. I sat on the bed trembling for a moment. It was happening again, everything was happening again. I could see my whole life played out before my eyes. Sculpted and memorized as though I'd already lived it. I saw myself becoming my mother, cold and hard after bearing three children and watching them all die before I too became consumed within the fires of hate. I saw my hands covered in blood after a long battle, Avian and Serpiente alike and I felt the sting and crackle of foreign death as it interacted with my own. I saw my home becoming a prison, its cell large but confining just the same. I saw a life filled with regret and doubt, but I could not see Zane.

Then, in the front of my minds eye I saw Vasili, taking everything that he wanted from me and when I had become a shell of hate as he had become he left me to wither within my grief alone. The seeds of hate had been sown into me as a child and now in this life that stood before me they were growing and I saw it plague my family for centuries to come.

The creaks of the floorboard squeaking tore me from my premonitions, and I looked toward the door as it opened slowly. My heart hoped for Rei, but it was Vasili who stood at the other side. His lowered face and blood soaked clothing telling the story of the night and its epilogue nothing but a plot of sadness and death. I stood up from the bed, my bare feet curling slightly against the chill of the floor. "What will happen?" I asked, truly I did not know, and my question went deeper. What happened after I left? Where is Rei? How many people were killed? Who were the victims? My eyes asked all of these questions but Vasili's blank look forbid me from seeking them.

"The attack was unexpected, but we will strike back fiercely and deadly"

The visions of war flashed before my eyes again, and my open hands stained with blood caused a tear to fall from my eye, I had to stop this. "Unexpected?" I questioned, the tone of my voice almost daring Vasili to elaborate. "Did you think that Adelina would just disappear from our lives, that she would hide away and we'd never have to face her wrath again? Did you think you could escape her retribution?" Vasili, who still stood in front of me, looked frozen, his eyes blank and through them I could see nothing but the dead man inside. "Is that what you thought?" I questioned my voice growing louder and vile against his hidden facade. "You thought that she would just go away and you could rule as Arami without the notion of this war staining your rule. No Arami for centuries has been able to escape it, not even my father, but you thought so." I was taken aback by my own anger but I was not willing to silence myself.

"What other delusions of fancy have you concocted? Do you still see me as that little girl that you knew who had not yet awoken to the world? Let me tell you something Vasili, since it has obviously escaped you and your plotted plane of the future... I'm married, I gave myself to Zane Cobriana, body and soul, and I will always be his, body and soul. I will never feel for you what I feel for him. Never!"

Vasili stood unmoved for a moment, but then within the flash of a second he grabbed hold of my shoulders. His firm fingers diving into my skin as if he wished to climb inside my flesh and live within me. I was left unguarded, and could not stop as he thrust me against the near by wall. His stiff lips covering my mouth in a mad dance that was rougher and colder then I had ever encountered from a man. I had confronted him about his delusions hoping to distance him from me but it had backfired and I was left wishing that I had remained silent.

I tried to push him away, I brought up my arms to pull him from me but my resistance only furthered his resolve to keep me in his control. His hands holding my shoulders back tightened and I felt long welts form from his sharp fingernails.

His lips were still crookedly dancing as he moved his mouth down my neck and chest. I could tell by the force of his lips upon me and the ferocity of which he held me that he had had a burning desire to do this for a long time, and now he was acting on those desires. When my mouth was clear I yelled at him, my voice forceful as I pleaded with him to release me; I feared where his desires might lead and I clenched my fists and throw them at the sides of his face. He was not deterred from my aggression and continued to travel down my body with his lips until he reached the cleavage of my breasts and began kissing them lovingly. His lips and tongue tender and gentle, as though his thirst for me had been quenched yet he still desired me. "Please Vasili!" I begged, hoping that the change of affection toward me meant that he would stop.

He did not stop and his lips continued to travel lower until they reached my belly button and through the thin material that made up my nightgown he kissed my skin. When he continued to go further I let out a blood curtailing scream flopping my body back and forth to try and get away from him. Vasili immediately became alert, as though he had just now woken up from a dream. His eyes wide and questioning as he looked over his arms and realized that he was holding me tightly. He seemed as though he hadn't realized what he was doing and I took his moment of confusion as my opportunity to escape. I thrust his hands away from me, my sloppy movements sending me off balance and I couldn't stop myself, as I slipped and fell back against the wall, letting my body slide down until I was sitting crookedly on the floor.

Vasili stood over me as I clutched my bruised wrists and began to cry; I realized for the first time what had truly happened a moment ago, and what could have happened if I let it continue. As I sobbed, I heard the balcony doors open and the two guards that Rei had posted there burst in, their weapons drawn, thinking that my scream meant that there had been another attack. "GET OUT!" Vasili barked, his face fuming with anger, and the two guards immediately obeyed, shutting the balcony door behind them.

I couldn't breath. I had to force my chest to rise and fall continuously just to get air into my lunges. I had forgotten how. I felt like a small child just awakening to the world and frustrated from the fact that I would have to learn everything that there was to it.

I heard the sound of footsteps running down the hall outside and the sound of the desperate knock at the door. Though I was not looking up, I saw Vasili look down at me. His expression was confused and apologetic, but I was too hurt and alone to care. I pushed my head back against the wall and turned it so that my loose hair hid the anguish on my face. Vasili opened the door and quickly got rid of the soldiers who had come after they heard my scream. I listened, desperately wanting to cry out, desperately wanting to run away and be free from all of this, but I couldn't speak. I still felt Vasili on me, his presence against me, his hands over my face, his lips on my skin. This strange and deadly ghost was insane, and I prayed that Rei was amongst the soldiers who had come. He wouldn't stand for Vasili's simple explanations. I knew that he would demanded to see me for himself and if Vasili would not let him then he would camp out behind the door and wait until I immerged.

I swallowed saliva down my closed throat and let out a gasp of anguish as he closed the door and I saw that there were was no Rei there to protect me. Vasili stammered, his walk uneven and forced as he came to me, kneeling down before my half-hidden face and gazing at me with conflicted eyes. He lifted his hand as though to move my hair aside but I threw my own hand up quickly and slapped it away. My eyes giving no sympathy to him for the deeds that he had done to me. He looked down; I could see a host of emotions on his face and within his eyes, a strange contrast to the blank look that he had entered the room with.

Without a word Vasili stood up and without an upward glance toward me headed for the door and quickly left through it.

I sighed, allowing myself to break down within the swell of fear and pain that I was feeling. Tears fell from my eyes uncontrollable until the act of my crying made me physically ill. After sitting against the wall for what seemed like hours, I pulled myself up. My body was blank and limp against the shell of my doubtful mind. I caught my reflection in the mirror and saw for the first time what he had done to me. My nightgown was torn at the sleeves and breast area, small clumps of my hair were missing and within my hands were clumps of his. Finger marks looked like small black and blue tattoos against my skin, marking my neck and shoulders as well as my wrists and arms. I watched as my lips began to quiver through the glass as I saw myself and didn't recognize it. I said nothing. I made no noise. I picked up a small comb that rested near the mirror and threw it as hard as I could into the reflection. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the guards on the balcony stir and look in through the curtains to check on me. I composed myself and slowly staggered toward the window that they looked through, and with the my outstretched hand I pulled the curtains shut, feeling the relief of being hidden if not safely inside my room.

Once I knew that I was concealed and that no one, even if they wanted to and were under orders to do so could watch me, I went to the wardrobe and pulled out another nightgown of the same style. Even with the nightgown on I felt exposed, as though every part of my body needed to be hidden, even my face, if I had had anything to cover it with I would have. I just wanted to dig a hole and never come out. Let the earth heal me like in the ancient stories and myths where great heroes go into the earth and the sky and return again stronger and more heroic then when they left.

I felt naked, and self conscious, so to cover up I pulled a long cape from the corner and tied the material together at the neck and let it hang over my body like a blanket, covering every part of me from my neck down to my toes.

Clutching the cape around me I sauntered over to the bed and pulled all of the covers over me as I desperately tried to find peace within the dream world. My mind reached out, hoping to connect with Zane, wherever he was.

During the dark night I felt a cold wind crawl across my face. The chill of it waking me up from whatever dream I had escaped into, though my mind was so closed off that I couldn't remember it. I lifted my face up, my sleep-ridden eyes trying to search the source of the cold out.

I quickly noticed that the balcony doors were open and the long white curtains blowing slightly in the drafty breeze. I waited a moment but I did not see the two guards that I had left there when I had fallen asleep. I scanned the room, but I could not see them anywhere. Exhausted and confused I let my head drop back onto the pillow below it and I had just prepared myself to get up and close the doors when I heard the sound of movement as if someone had moved quickly and their clothes had brushed up against the other. "Hello?" I whispered, my body alert to any danger that might come my way, and my fists clenched incase it was Vasili who had come back.

I jumped when a figure suddenly appeared before me, as though forming from the wind itself. The figure cupped a hand around my cheek softly, and through the darkness his identity was revealed to me. It was Zane...


	18. Chapter 18

Title: Snake Singer

Authors Notes: Thank you so much to TallemeraRane who helped with the editing of this chapter. 

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

His eyes were the first things that I noticed about him. His once fiery red eyes, like secret flames of emotions had been extinguished and only a dark abyss remained. Though the change in his eyes was the clearest image of him that I saw, the rest of the differences soon became apparent as well. His face and hands were bruised and lumped as though he had been beaten, his face a canvass of uneven bumps and scars, and I mapped all of them with the tips of my fingers as I traced his face. His skin was so tarnished and tainted. Every freckle, every scar, I found with ease sending all of the power that I held within my skin into him to heel his wounds.

Zane said nothing, his black eyes burning wholes of longing into my soul fiercely, and I silently begged him to end this torture before I went insane within the yearning for his voice.

"Did he hurt you?" he asked me, his voice strained and almost childlike as I felt the desperation spurring from him.

The truth slipped into my mind for a second, and for that one second I was ready to tell him of all that Vasili had done to me and all that went on in these last few days. The second passed away from memory quickly as he folded me sweetly within his arms. Though he was bruised and bloody he could still hold me tightly and I still found myself complete and unafraid in them.

His embrace was muscular and though he was a strong and heroic man I could feel him shrink within my arms, he in need of as much comfort and devotion as I needed. He desired the same peace that I desired and we found it both within the others' arms. I wrapped my arms around him tighter, letting him feel safe while being so close to me and allowing myself the feeling of safety that I also sought.

I pulled his head down to my breast and let him weep there. I lowered myself until I was lying on the bed and he next to me. I continued to hold him within my arms until I heard his cries slow and then cease all together. I felt his hands clutching around me loosen on their need for me.

I felt his head rise and I pulled my hand away from his face as he spoke to me, his voice lower then a dangerous whisper. "Will it ever be the same?" he asked. "Will it be as it was before? And used to be?" I knew that he was speaking of our relationship and friendship before all of this had happened.

My mouth was gaping wide. _Did he really think that all that has happened would change my feelings for him? That after everything I would decide to stay with Vasili then return with him to whatever life awaited us in the future? _I silenced his fear with the touch of my lips as I kissed his forehead. I smiled, feeling his tensed muscles loosen slightly. I whispered back to him, in a voice meant only for him: "You and I are forever, no matter what. Our bond is as old as time and will not cease until all around us has long since died, and we with it." I felt his smile widen as his face lay against my skin.

"Did he hurt you?" he asked me again. I wondered if he knew that I was hiding something from him, which I was keeping a secret as to what had happened between Vasili and I last night. That is, his act and my reaction to it. As unwanted and un-enjoyed as his passion had been for me was I knew that I could not tell Zane. Vasili's conduct would haunt him forever and he would always have to live with the fact that he had not been there to stop it from happening. He would always have to live with the knowledge that he was unable to save me, shield me, or stop me from having to experience that.

"What happened to you?" I asked, straying away from the question that he had asked me and hoping that he would only suspect a deep concern for him.

"Adelina sent me into the Underground Municipality." That was all he said.

Silence.

Unbearable silence.

There was more to the story. I knew that there was, but I did not press further. Like I was to him, Zane was holding something back from me. His reasons as important as mine, and I respected his silence for that, but a part of me deep inside wanted to know everything. Where every wound that I now saw on him had come from and why it had been placed there. I sighed, enjoying the new silence that my controlled fears and anxieties gave me.

We lay there together. An act as innocent and gentle as it could be. Husband and wife. Leaders. Outcasts. We were nothing more in that moment then Zane Cobriana and Danica Shardae. Nothing more. Nothing less.

My mind was uncontrollably thinking. I saw so many flashes of hope. Just as my premonition of life with Vasili had been dark and unnatural, I now saw the hope of a newly forged life with Zane. We could live a simple life together in the countryside where worries and the concerns of war could be as far away as the lives that we had grown up to lead. We could shed our former selves like skins that didn't fit us anymore. For a moment I wanted more then anything else for us both to be old and living a life that was far away from all of this.

_The guards..._

I jumped out of my thoughts as though I had just stepped into ice water and could feel the chill creep up my body like a crawling spider. "Zane! The guards!" I said, my eyes going back to the open doors to the balcony and the absence of the guards that had been there when I went to sleep only a few hours ago. They were gone. My eyes then went to the entrance into the room, where I knew instinctively that Rei had posted more guards.

"They're gone," Zane whispered lifting his hand up to my cheek and pulling my face back down to the pillow. "Rei knew that I was coming. I thought that he had warned you, but he made sure that I would not be seen by any of Vasili's guards." I let out the long breath that I had been holding for several minutes. The release felt wonderful.

Soon everything became silent again and once more the only thing that mattered was our bodies hold to the other, and the dreams that were forming within our thoughts as we both began to wish them into reality.

Zane raised himself, his dark eyes looking into mine as he stroked my cheek. "We have to get out of here," he said slowly, his hand still on my face, "We have to leave and know that Vasili will never follow us." His words had underlining meaning, and I knew what they were long before he said them. I nodded my head, an action that told him that I understood what he meant and that I agreed that it to had to be done.

Both of us left the bed at the same time, our hands interlocked with the need to still be near each other and close or the fears that we had been feeling in the others absence would come back. Together, though I was in the lead we closed the balcony doors and in the sight of the moonlight we embraced one more time, our bodies pressed as close and as tight as we could get them and as I leaned my head down on his shoulder I whispered, my lips not far from his ear: "I'm going with you, this is as much my fight as it is yours."

"I don't want to leave you." He whispered back to me, his arms wrapped tightly around my waist as he pulled me ever closer. His voice was ashamed, alarmed, not wanting to leave me here, but fearing what might happen if he took me with him.

"I don't want you to be alone!"

Our embrace in the moonlight lasted for what seemed like hours. Our arms and bodies needed to learn the feeling of holding the other so close again. Our time apart had left us longing to such a degree that we had forgotten. 

When we let go I watched as he drew his long metal sword from it's halter at his waist and without a second thought I pulled open the cedar chest at the foot of my bed, pulling aside the silk pillow that rested on top of it. Once the chest was opened I saw what I was looking for immediately – my father's old sword, the same sword that he had died with in his hands. The blade was clean and sparkled in the moonlight slightly. I held it up, its weight a slight strain on my arm, but I managed. "It was my fathers," I said lightly, acknowledging the importance of it to me.

Zane held out his blade to me, saying: "This was my fathers as well." We both looked at each other. We were about to fight a battle with the swords of the men whom died hating each other, and we, their children would die loving each other.

I can't say whether it was Zane's idea or mine, it just came to us at the same time, but that night instead of going into battle with our fathers swords we switched. Zane handing me his fathers blade and I handing him mine. It was an act that had more symbolism then anything else. An act that offered trust and comfort between the two of us in battle and also, we hoped, helped put two great kings that we had both lost prematurely to rest in our hearts.

Clasping hands together once more we stood before the door out into the hall. Our veins flowing with fear as to what the confrontation ahead of us would bring. _Would we escape tonight, or by morning will the leaderless murder their leaders?_


	19. Chapter 19

Title: Snake Singer

Authors Notes: Thank you so much to TallemeraRane who helped with the editing of this chapter. 

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

The doors to the throne room loomed up before us like high statues, the doors themselves warning us of our fate on the other side. Zane still had his hand closely interlocked with mine, an action that was delicate and childlike even though it held so much more meaning for the both of us.

Neither of us wanted to be there - both preferring to have still been upstairs holding each other, to sleep within the shield of the others presence and wake up in the safety of the daylight.

Zane and I didn't have to speak, or look at each other to know that we were both afraid.

Zane squeezed my hand tighter as he raised his leg up and in one brutal kick knocked the door to the throne room open. I held my breath, expecting to see hoards of guards all loyal to Vasili. I expected to see hundreds of the best Avian soldiers ready to take us over, send Zane back to the Underground Municipality and me back to the arms of my captor who held me with such force that I knew his hold would one day stifle me.

I swallowed hard, expecting everything but what really stood in front of me. Vasili, alone, hunched while sitting on the throne that in my life I had seen many men sit upon. His hand covering most of his face as it leaned against the side armrest. Through my vision I searched the remaining room quickly, making sure that no guard or soldier stood lurking somewhere. I saw nothing.

"Vasili!" Zane called out. With Zane's voice Vasili moved, yet he still hadn't looked up. With the unexpected tone interrupting his thoughts, he raised his head to us. His eyes were bottomlessly alone, and they held me in a deep gaze of longing and sympathy. "Vasili!" Zane yelled again, drawing Vasili's gaze away from me.

"I knew you would come!" he said, but then reverted to his affirmative silence once more. Vasili still sat hunched but he looked away from Zane and back to me.

In my mind I saw again the face of the young boy that I had been introduced to while we both still could be considered to be in infancy. His eyes ever longing even then, longing for something that he didn't have and something that he knew I possessed. _The ability to love!_ Vasili had never loved anything, though he had been given love in quantity by several people. Vasili wants me because I, unlike him, allow myself to feel, even under the fear that by giving myself up to my feelings I might be hurt. A river of understanding flowed over me, and I now recognized all of the times that he cared for me, or looked after me it was because he knew that I loved him, he knew that with that union I would bestow that freedom upon him.

Limitlessly.

Everlasting.

This man, who once stood before me and promised me that he would always be beside me and would never leave me alone to this world. He once promised me peace: _"At whatever cost to me I will bring you the stillness in life that you so desire!"_ He was once so much like Zane, and I believe that he truly meant it, and means it still. He loves me for the fact that I could love him. His torch of feeling fumes with the hope that one day, after many days of given love that he to will feel something.

I recognized this man who stood before me now, not as the boy from long ago, or the troubled man who followed me mercilessly now. He was a creature mad with longing and coldness. A creature un-whole in itself; incomplete. As he looked at me I realized that to him I was his other piece, the missing section of his misguided soul.

"Do you remember when we were children Danica?" Vasili asked, his eyes piecing wholes into me like daggers. "And I promised you peace?"

I remembered, my mind was full of those childhood promises.

I smiled, looking deep into his eyes in return, my voice even as I said: "It was never meant to be Vasili. I will never fill that emptiness within you."

His mouth stiffened, and a frown furrowed his face. "You are mine; it was predetermined, decided by destiny and fate together. We are meant to rule here and bring peace to this land. We are meant to live forever as heros."

"No!" Zane said, letting go of my hand and stepping forward, his body now in front of me, so that no matter how much he wanted Vasili could not look at me, only Zane was in his line of sight. "Danica belongs to no one, it is her choice, and she chose me." My vision was unevenly placed, and I tried to keep one eye on Zane and the other on Vasili, trying to calculate each man's next move and anticipate the danger before it was to late.

Vasili stood from his hunched position, his form statuesque as he became tall and firm before us. With the reach of his hand he pulled form the halter at his waste a sword, much the same as the ones that Zane and I carried. Vasili's sword though, was a battle sword, a clean blade with very little decoration, just cool gray metal slicing out of its holder and prepared to lash out at Zane.

I watched as Vasili and Zane approached each other, their figures tight and narrow as they assumed their combat positions, both with swords vertical and ready to strike at the slightest move. I held my breath as I heard the sound of metal clashing and the fight begin...

Vasili moved first, slicing his blade toward Zane at the hip area, but Zane quickly countered by moving his own sword down and shielding his skin from the deadly weapon. Moment's latter Zane lifted his sword and slashed it toward Vasili's scull and attempted to kill him in one deadly blow. But one inch away from his skin, Zane was stopped. "She'll never be happy with you!" Vasili spoke inbetween breaths, taunting Zane into a deadly verbal fight to counter their physical brawl. "You'll never be able to keep her safe; there will always be someone else to threaten her. If not me, another will come!"

Zane seemed as though he was not listening, but as the fight continued and both of them began to move in a circler motion I saw that Zane's face was tightening as Vasili's harsh word coursed through him. Again, I heard metal slice at each other, and further danger was brought to both men. "Never!" Vasili spoke up again, his voice shaky from the exhaustion of keeping up the fight. "Never will she be satisfied with this life. No Avian can be complete with a Serpiente, which is why it has never happened before. You will plague her with your presence until she is no longer able to be herself, let alone a woman in love with you!"

I knew that Zane was trying to block out Vasili's words, desperate for the silent honor in a fight that he would have preferred.

The fights continued, swords swinging, combat ensuing. Zane sliced the tip of his blade across Vasili's face and formed a large gash across his cheek, which blood quickly gushed from. To counter from the wound that he was now suffering, Vasili moved his sword furiously, and before Zane could react, he sliced open one of his shoulder blades. From my standing position still by the doorway I could see a line of blood gush out from his skin and land harshly on the hard floor a few feet away.

I gasped; _please let this fight end!_

I knew that Zane was deeply wounded by the infliction that Vasili had caused him. It was more emotionally then physically and I saw his eyes flare with anger. I saw the fire within the deep dark holes of blackness in his eyes, and I could see Vasili fueling that fire to burn ever brighter.

With the slash of his sword over his head, Zane came down on Vasili with no mercy. I could hear the tare of skin as Zane's blade carved a 'C' shape against Vasili's abdomen. Vasili lost his balance from the force of the blow and was left face up on the ground, his hand clutching to the torn material of his shirt to try to stop the bleeding. With in a matter of minutes his white shirt had been almost completely stained red.

When on the floor Vasili knew that he was beaten, and didn't bother to continue fighting. He let his warrior's sword fall from his bloody fingers. Zane held my father's sword to his neck, as if waiting for the right second to plunge the blade into the thick flesh of his collar. "Go on," Vasili said, "do it. I want you to!" Zane positioned his blade, in one fatal swoop he could kill Vasili and we both would be free. Zane raised the blade up high and began to move it down toward him...


	20. Chapter 20

Title: Snake Singer

Authors Notes: Thank you so much to TallemeraRane who helped with the editing of this chapter. 

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

Zane held his sword only a few inches above Vasili's head, his hand and the sword shaking slightly. I couldn't move. I wanted Zane to stop and let Vasili live. Zane's life was too important to me to just let him spend the rest of his life tormenting himself over Vasili's death and the part that he played in it. Yet, at the same time, I knew that Zane had killed people, I knew that he had slaughtered for safety at home and on the battlefield. I wanted Vasili dead, dead to the world and dead to me. My flesh still felt raw and awkward when I thought of what he had done to me and all of the things that he would have later, had he been given the chance to do so. I felt lost within myself and the only thing that I could cling to was the hope that Zane and I would live through this and somehow have a life after everything that would be worth living for; a life worth fighting for.

Zane seemed completely hidden from me yet at the same time completely exposed. The moment that held the paused movements of us all seemed to collapse and go on forever. Vasili with his delighted smirk as though he were pleased to see the pathway to death before him. His dark blond hair half way covering his excited eyes. The same eyes of a child who was just about to receive a gift that he had been begging for longer then he could remember. Zane stood above him; his form shadowed by the erect stillness of his high shoulder blades. His fingers tightly together around the handle of his sword. His knuckles white with the exception of tiny blue veins that seemed as though they would burst at any moment. Then myself, standing off to the side powerless to stop any of it, or change any of it. I was the host to this fear and emptiness that I couldn't seem to escape. I wanted to stop everything...

"Zane!" I called, wanting my voice to fill the void of all of this. If only all of this could have been different. If only Vasili had truly lived and remained here all of these years and I had never met Zane and wasn't now tortured with these two diverging feelings.

"Don't interfere!" Vasili yelled, his content awareness of death and his all too hopefulness for it in the coming seconds overpowering me as I saw Vasili for the mad man that he was, begging for a death that he had so long searched for. "Go on Zane, do it." He said between his smiling lips. "You and I both know that my death will solve all of your problems." It was like great wisdom to Vasili, his words almost a prayer meant to absolve him of all of his sins. "But just remember," he continued, "you will never be able to make her happy. Your relationship will crumble and never remain intact through out this war!"

I saw Zane lower the sword slightly. It wasn't a deep plunge as though he was trying to scare Vasili into the submission of begginig for his life. I knew that the satisfaction of killing Vasili was dwarfed by Vasili's welcoming of it. But rather a slow covering of alternative thoughts; a to be or not to be approach to the action that he was about to commit.

"Go on Zane. Plunge that knife into me and be done with it!" The smile on Vasili's face widened.

Zane's firm posture loosened slightly and in one thankful second he let go of the sword and moved it away from Vasili's neck. "I will not kill you Vasili," he said, his voice exhausted as he let out a breath that he must have been holding for as long as Vasili had been on the ground. "I will not take your life." Zane's bluntness seemed to startle Vasili, and Zane quickly moved back to my side and we both watched as Vasili got up from the floor, his arm around the 'C' shaped gash across his stomach, the pressure of his hand making his already bloodied shirt redder and damper. "Death will not free us of you!"

Zane stood at my side and with proud eyes over his decision I lifted my hand up to his cheek and kissed his temple, my lips slightly above a scratch that had been given to him in the fight.

I could feel Vasili's anger fuming from where I stood across the room with Zane. "Fools!" He called out to us, the drip of blood falling from his curled lips. "You have too much against you; the world with all of its wars will never let you be together." Vasili paused, his deep-set eyes going from me to Zane. "Your presence, so near to her, will kill her one day, and on that day there will be nothing that you can do to save her, or yourself."

_I stopped listening to him long ago._

I heard running footsteps from down the hall and shortly after Rei entered with a host of Avian soldiers behind him, their weapons all drawn as though ready for warfare. "There he is!" Zane called out to them, not bothering to turn around but knowing that it was Rei and his men who had come in. "Take him back to the Underground Municipality!"

After hearing those two words, _Underground Municipality_, Vasili's eyes became the eyes of a desperate victim trying to escape the clutches of the creature who desired to kill him. He became desperate, and I knew that he would much rather have been killed then to go back to that place. From behind me I heard Rei's men approach him, their boot heals clicking and clashing against the hard stone floor like hunters hunting their prey. Vasili quickly turned on his heels, unwilling to go with them quietly and without incident.

With one last desperate glance at me Vasili ran. His body fast and unrelentlessly frantic as he came to a dead end in the throne room, and without turning to face us he ran into the large glass window against one of the walls. A spray of glass fell like raindrops into the throne room and out onto the wild earth outside of the Hawks Keep. Vasili fell like a doll from the window and into the darkness of the night. Was he alive or dead when he fell to the ground? I'll never know.

Rei's men didn't follow Vasili through his chosen rout of escape, but rather turned around and headed for the entrance to the Hawks keep to follow him that way. No doubt the fall through the window would have wounded him in some way, and his wounds from the fight with Zane would slow him down if he was still alive and wanted to flee to safety. As Rei passed us, closely behind his men he said: "We will find him!"

Zane and I didn't doubt him, and at least this journey of our lives had ended, and whatever shape the next morning would take and the following days was unknown to us, but at least this part was over.


	21. Chapter 21

Title: Snake Singer

Authors Notes: Thank you so much to TallemeraRane who helped with the editing of this chapter. 

Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.

The moon was still hanging beautifully between the dark blue clouds of night when Zane and I entered my bedroom in the Hawks Keep. Before anything else and without a word to me, Zane placed my father's sword gently down on the cedar chest at the foot of my bed. His gesture almost ceremonial, as though he were putting a great doubt to himself to rest and a ghost that had been haunting him to rest as well. Both of us were exhausted and however minor Zane made it seem, he was wounded. I sat him on the edge of my bed gently and tended to his wounds. Placing my hands at either side of his face, letting my fingers dance over the smooth skin against his cheeks I kissed the scratches and swollen surfaces there. I brushed his dark black hair away and I cleaned each scratch and torn surface and then placed a small bandage there to ward away infection and disease.

After his face was cleaned, I moved to the more serious wound on his back shoulder blade. Gently I removed the torn white shirt that was already half soaked with blood from his skin, helping him pull its fabric away from his flesh without flexing his back and causing him pain. I left his side only for an instant as I pored clean water from my commode into a bowl and grabbed a towel from its side hinges. When I sat back on the bed I positioned myself behind him and dampened the towel slightly. Then I brushed its soft surface across the wound. I felt Zane wince from the stinging pain and I quickly kissed the back of his neck to ease that pain.

His back was filled with scars that I had never seen before. Some small and minute, while others, especially one, stood out as a long unhealed gash about four inches long went up vertically from one of his sides. I traced its swollen line with my fingers wanting to learn the feel of it but I dared not ask how it was received. I knew that the Underground Municipality was a horrible place that housed all of the most dangerous criminals from all of the shape shifting races and that no law or rules prevailed there. No doubt Zane's identity as leader of the Serpiente had been discovered and he had been punished for it.

When I was finished cleaning the wound with water, I pulled loose a large line of material from the hem of my nightgown, making it into a make shift tourniquet and wrapped it around his shoulder and the wound to help stop the blood flow from it. When I had finished tending to all of his wounds I pulled from my wardrobe a plain off white shirt that belonged to him and helped him put it back on to guard against the cold.

Zane and I then laid down together, our arms our shields as we wrapped the other tightly within our embrace. "Everything will be all right now," I whispered gently as I kissed his forehead, the smell of his skin an intoxicating aroma that I found myself lost in. Zane said nothing back to me, just held me tightly. Zane had in fact not spoken sense he had decided not to kill Vasili. I knew that what Vasili had said weighed heavily on him, and that he took to heart the untrue words that he had spoken about our future, as though it were a plague or a curse on happy days that we would have someday. "It's not true, Zane," I said, not needing him to tell me that that was what was bothering him. "None of it is true, he just said that to mess with your mind, our future does not hold those actions." My words were not enough; he still said nothing and didn't move. I wished that I could do more, but there was nothing left for me to do except lead a life with him and show him that what Vasili had said was not true. _It wasn't!_

A knock form the other side of the door burst us both from whatever thought or dream we had strayed into for comfort. "I'll go," I said, my voice telling him without words that I didn't want him to move in case it would further irritate his wounds. When I got up from the bed I realized that I was just in my nightgown and I swiftly pulled a shawl from the wardrobe over my shoulders and chest and draped it around myself.

When I opened the door it was Rei who I found at the other end. He was breathing heavily, like most humans breath after they've run great distances without stopping, but I knew that Rei had changed, the energy from the change into his bird counterpart thick and I could feel it like a strong smell. I turned back to Zane and saw that he was beginning to lift himself off the bed, the duty difficult with one of his shoulders in a Tourniquet.

"Do you have news about Vasili?" Zane asked, the first words that he had spoken in over an hour.

"Yes...may I come in?"

I stepped aside, allowing Rei to enter our bedroom with no difficulty. Without knowing the depth of the information that he was about to share with us I shut the door, not wanting some piece of gossip going around the Keep that didn't need to be known to anyone else besides the people in this room. Before Rei spoke I wrapped the shawl around myself tighter, as though it were a shield that could protect me from whatever weapon that was pointed at me.

"My soldiers and I tracked Vasili from the air, most of the Royal Flight going out with me as we searched the surrounding areas. Finally we found him on Serpiente land and then eventually he got to the Serpiente Keep."

"My sister?" Zane interrupted with a desperate voice.

"The lady Irene and her family are well and looked after," Rei reassured him and I watched as Zane let out a sigh of relief. "As I said," Rei continued, "we followed Vasili to the Serpiente Keep. He went to Adelina. There was a fight. They both killed each other in their rage."

I was shocked, and I could tell by the look on Zane's face that he was shocked as well. Both of our former lovers, ghosts which had haunted us for so long, fuming flames of the past had both been extinguished together. It was as though a great weight of duty and reasonability had been lifted from our shoulders. But I knew that Vasili's death wouldn't halt his voice in Zane's head, even now after his death sowing seeds of doubt in Zane's mind.

"Thank you for this news commander," Zane said, his voice dry and lacking any real gratitude of truth.

Rei turned, sensing Zane's distance and my hope to bring him back. "Good night," he said before walking back across the room and leaving.

I stood where I had been when Rei spoke; I was silent, and I watched Zane as he processed this unexpected news. His head was lowered, his eyes half shut and silhouetted by the candlelight. His exposed chest glistened in the dim glow, and his hair hung like a veil over the scratches and scrapes on his cheeks and face. "Are you all right?" I asked, I knew that Zane and Adelina had had a complicated past, though I was not entirely sure of everything that had happened between them.

Zane was silent, and kept his head down, shadowing any emotion that I might be able to read on his face.

"It is unexpected news, and she is a loss to you. However great or small that loss my be, you are still right to mourn her." I felt like swallowing my own words; the taste of them stung in my throat. I hated Adelina, and worse I hated Vasili and I was glad that they were both dead and gone from our lives for good.

I smiled, hiding the feelings that I was feeling and I went to him. Sitting beside him on the bed I wrapped my arm around his shoulders, being careful of his wounded shoulder blade and kissed him at the base of his neck.

"I do not mourn the Adelina that you know," he said gently, the first words that he had spoken to me in so long and as he lifted his head up and leaned it sweetly against my head he continued: "I mourn who she once was. The days were not long ago that I valued her as a friend and an ally. But then she became my enemy and under that yoke she has died. I never wanted death for her, I couldn't give her death after she killed my mother and I would not have chosen it for her now - had I the choice -"

His words were meaningful and in a way I understood them. He was not morning her for the villain who had murdered so many and destroyed so much but for the woman that he knew long ago who was only honorable and steadfast. It was much the same way that I saw Vasili. In the days that he had held me here I did see glimpses of the old boy that I had grown up with, and for a few seconds I thought that he could go back to that. Reform. Change. But now I will never know. I will never know if Vasili had any of the old parts left in him, or if they had become the only casualties on the battlefield that day that I thought that I had lost him. "To regret is to be human," I whispered to him.

I felt Zane pull away suddenly and lift himself off of the bed. He stood turned away from me for a moment and I watched as he turned back and said: "Human! Are we human Danica?"

I stood up, taking hold of his hand: "Of course we are human. We are born and we die. We love, and we hate. We wish and we regret. We are human Zane, and even if you do not believe it, I have to. I have to believe that we are more then the animals that posses our bodies." He took hold of me, his arms sweet and loving. I felt his warm lips crisscross against the back of my neck and up my jaw line. I wanted so much to be with him. "We will never be apart again Zane, never."

He pulled away again, and I was left hurt and alone where I stood. "What is it?" I asked, my eyes furrowed as to why he feared my touch so.

"Danica!" He said, the emotion in his voice commanding my attention. "The sun will still rise and set if I am not at your side."

He turned away from me again, and I approached him lightly. I placed my hand gently on his wounded shoulder and he allowed me to lean my face against the opposite side of his back, the top of my head coming up to the top of his back. "The sun may continue to rise and set," I said, "but I will not rise, only set." I felt a tear swell from my eye and then roll silently down my cheek and then down his back like it was a great river overflowing from its banks. He turned back to me, lacing his arm underneath my crop of golden hair and rested it against the feathers on the back of my neck. He held me like a dying child, so gentle, so loving, as if the slightest ruff touch would break me into a thousand tiny pieces and I would never recover. He leaned his face down to me, brushing his ample lips across my own until our mouths were intertwined with desire.

"Come," he whispered to me, "lets go to bed."

The sun had already risen and shown through the open balcony doors wildly. Its beads of sun and light crowding the room like a thick smoke. I breathed its delight in. For the first time in so long I felt truly free in the place where I was and content within my own skin. I shifted my body hoping to find Zane on his usual side of the bed. Perhaps I would wake him to see the beauty of the morning for himself. Perhaps I would watch him sleep, basking in the joy of having him so near to me again.

"Zane?" I whispered turning my head toward him, but he was not there. I lifted my torso off the bed quickly, my eyes searching the room franticly. _Had everything last night been a dream?_ I said a swift silent prayer. "Zane?" I whispered again, feeling the choke of tears swell in my throat. _"Zane?"_

I slammed my hands down on the mattress, preparing to lift myself up from the bed and search the room but as my hand hit the blanket below me I felt the hard crisp feel of folded paper there. I looked down, my eyes seeing a small white folded piece of paper against my palm and in small black letters-Zane's handwriting- the name Danica etched on it. I lifted the letter apprehensively, feeling the curl of the thick parchment underneath my fingertips.

Swallowing my tears of anguish that I had been prepared to shed a few moments ago, I pulled open the folds of the paper, its words startling me as I read them:

**__**

Danica,

Forgive me, there is no future for the both of us as long as we stay together. Know that my heart will always burn with love for you, and that there will never be another, but we can never be together again. Live, and be prosperous.

Yours Forever,

Zane.

The End.

This story in its entirety is dedicated to the memory of:

Jessica Jordan Blue

1986-2003


End file.
